Purging the World in the Blood of an Angel
by Black Beyond
Summary: Rated for a reason. Sequel to Changed Destiny. Usagi sits numbly in the aftermath of battle, and her heart makes two very different wishes. This is now officially a Sailormoon/Harry Potter Crossover, starting with the 6th chapter. Have fun, minna!
1. Be Careful What You Wish For

Purging the World in Blood  
Chapter 1  
Black Beyond  
"The Escape of the Princess"  
  
~"~  
  
*giggles* I know that I said that this would be a while in coming out, but then, I didn't expect to finish Reflection of a Soul, either. But I did, so I'm making this Top 1 Priority. Yeah, I'll still update Haunting Mists and Lover's Last Breath, but not so often. This fic's fun to write.  
  
It starts off directly from Changed Destiny. And I mean directly. You must have read that fic, or this is not going to make much sense at all. You're gonna be sitting there saying "huh?" for an hour if you don't read that first! And review it, minna!  
  
Anywhozits, here you go! Enjoy, and flame as much as you like.   
  
~'~  
  
  
  
  
  
Tsukino Usagi sat in the middle of a ruined universe. Her eyes were closed, and her naked body, ripped and abused, was covered in her blood and the blood of her enemy, whose remains lay not all of two feet near. The sky was black, no stars to relieve the darkness. The only glimmer of light came from the clear crystal stone that lay in the girl's cupped palms, showing that all that was left of the universe was a single floating piece of rock that hovered in the nothingness.  
  
Her silvery eyes were locked onto this gem, wide and unblinking, as though it had a mesmerizing power over her. She seemed to seem something playing in the depth of the jewel, something beautiful and hideous.  
  
"So... so, so, so..." Her murmur was a scream in the silence. "I live after all... how curious it is that I can not die in this moment, a moment of triumph for my planet... this would be an honorable death for me. But Destiny deems it otherwise, think you not?" Her eyes never moved from the light in her hands, but there was no question she spoke to the unrecognizable body of Metalia. She seemed oblivious to her own gashed and ravaged body, and as the light danced over her body, they seemed to shrink.  
  
"You wait for my command, my lovely mother." She spoke now to the glowing in her hands. "But I don't know what to order. I suppose..."   
  
Her eyes closed in pain, in sudden realization of her own presence. The ginzuishou was confused, overwhelmed by two equally strong wishes coming from the girl's heart.  
  
'What am I do to?' It wondered to Itself, torn between the commands. Finally, it decided.   
  
'You will see what would have been. You will know happiness. That fulfills one of your wishes. You will go home to love and your family and your friends, completing the other. Since that is not possible in the universe you have known, I shall make an exchange. Let it be so.'  
  
Usagi was startled as her crystal began to pulsate. "I made no wish! What are you doing?!" She cried, but her voice was lost in the swirling of winds around her. She felt her body become clean again and a strange fuku appeared on her, a strange scepter in her hand. Her hair was no longer bloodstained and tangled, but golden and in odango.  
  
"Sailormoon! Watch out!" The winds stopped and the sun blinded her after the inky night of the destroyed universe. Mars's voice was loud in her ears and her eyes adjusted immediately.  
  
She saw a strange breed of youma diving for her throat and without thinking let her training take over.  
  
In a fluid motion, she stepped out of the creature's path. As it soared by her, bewildered by the change, her arm shot out and her scepter caught it in the neck, making a sickening crunching sound as all the little bones there broke. She flung it to the ground and without a second thought drove the sharp butt of the long scepter into the beast's heart.  
  
It gave a sick kind of moan as it died, dark blood burbling past its lips, and turned to dust.  
  
"I wonder why it did that..." She kicked at the small pile of dust. "They never did before..."  
  
She finally remembered that there were other people there. She looked up to find the inner senshi, Tuxedo Kamen, Uranus and Neptune, and the two cats all there and looking at her like she'd grown two or three extra heads.  
  
Her mind immediately took note of their fukus. They were different, each of them. And all of them wore similar expressions of shock and horror as they stared at her. In her peripheral vision she saw the Tokyo Tower and nearly jumped.   
  
It had been destroyed during the Takeover. And the skies were sunny and bright, and the landscape was not scarred. Where had that blasted crystal taken her to?  
  
"Uranus? Get out of that tree." She ordered, a bit annoyed at the way the tall soldier gaped at her from the boughs. When there was no response save a sulky look of incredibility. "That was an order, mind you. I know you're independent, Haruka, but this is ridiculous. What are you doing in that tree, anyway, and not down here keeping me from becoming a pincushion?"  
  
Venus frowned. "Who's Haruka?" She murmured to Jupiter, who shrugged.   
  
"The better question is: who is that in our leader's body?" She retorted just as a quietly.  
  
Sailor Uranus jolted at the sound of her true name being spoken by the senshi she thought was the clumsy, ditzy leader of the inner senshi. Instinctively she gathered a handful of energy and leapt at Sailormoon, ready to kill to keep her secret.  
  
And promptly found herself sitting on her bum, holding a cracked rib, with Sailormoon standing tall and imposing over her. Uranus stared into grayish eyes and knew she looked not into the eyes of a senshi she knew.  
  
"That was foolish of you, Sailor Uranus." Sailormoon said quietly, crouching down to be on eye level with her senshi. "I don't know what I did to piss you off, but never do that again."  
  
She stood up as Neptune landed behind her, ready to defend her partner. Sailormoon shrugged.  
  
"Do what you will, although her pride may be a bit wounded." Neptune's artist's eyes noted the difference in which Sailormoon carried herself.   
  
"Who are you?" She demanded in a hiss.  
  
Sailormoon smiled. "Some things never change." For a moment Neptune thought the girl might hug her, but then the leader of the senshi turned and walked back towards the inner senshi, who were now gathering around Mercury for a replay of Sailormoon's liquid movements.   
  
"Wow, Odango Atama! What a fluke! That was outrageous!" Mars squealed, as Uranus and Neptune left quietly. "The way that youma flipped over--"  
  
Venus was even more enthusiastic. "You go, girl! That was terrific! I guess Luna's training is finally paying off! I never thought I'd see you move like that-- wow! Let's see it again, Ami-chan!"  
  
Jupiter grinned. "Pretty smooth, Usagi-chan."  
  
Mercury made a face as she played it again to Venus's cry of delight. "It was so gristly... did you have to stab it, Usagi-chan? Couldn't you have just dusted it as usual?"  
  
Sailormoon couldn't help it. She froze, unable to reply, shocked by their reactions. These were not her senshi at all! Who were these happy-go-lucky, innocent people? And Mamoru-- why did he vanish like that? Why were they dehenshining here in broad daylight-- they had not destroyed Beryl's army yet-- it was dangerous beyond belief, and they were so careless about it!   
  
She looked helplessly over to Luna and Artemis. "Hello?" She inquired, half afraid of what the cat s were like in this life.  
  
"Wow, Sailormoon, you were great." Artemis congratulated her. But Luna looked up at her, frowning with worry.  
  
"You just put yourself in a lot of danger, Usagi. I can't believe you. Even if you did defeat it..." She added, grudgingly.   
  
Had she been anyone else, she might have fainted. Instead, she nodded weakly. "Yeah... sorry... Luna... uhm... I have to be somewhere... heh..."  
  
Denying months of training, she made herself very conspicuous and fled the grassy park, shooting by couples and families out for happy walks. She found a dark alley and ducked behind the Dumpster and dehenshined after checking for bugs and spies.  
  
She looked at her clothing and sighed in relief. It was a uniform she recognized: the Juuban high school uniform from before the Takeover, when sailor-type school fukus were in wide use. So this was a world where Beryl had never taken over? How curious...  
  
She began to dig in her memory for the happy times three years past. Things could change a lot in three years, but she did not think that was the case here.  
  
She leaned against the sooty wall, trying to figure things out. From the way they were acting, it seemed as though whatever Usagi she had replaced was not a very good fighter, or anything else. It was ridiculous they should be so excited she had killed one youma beast, and that they should be upset over how she killed it. They were nothing more than a group of over-enthusiastic teenagers! When had they seen real war?  
  
No. She stopped herself on that train of thought. They were senshi, she told herself firmly, and they deserve that title. I can't judge them because they have not lived the life of my world. Keep an open mind, Usagi. You'll see how strong they are-- after all, their Usagi must be in my world...  
  
"Hey! Who's there-- oh, it's just a little girl-- Usagi? Usagi-chan, what are you doing back here?" A very welcome blonde head stood in the entrance to the dark corridor, looking at her in a familiar way, worried and smiling.  
  
"Motoki?" Usagi asked tentatively.  
  
"Who else, Usagi-chan? Hey, what happened? You look pretty torn up. Did someone hurt you? Come inside and I'll get you a milkshake and you can tell me about it."  
  
She nearly burst into tears out of sheer relief that Motoki had not changed a bit. Until that moment she had not noticed that the numerous cuts and gouges over her body were still there, bruises forming and the rough cloth of her skirt irritating a particularly deep puncture wound from Metalia's sword.   
  
"Okay." She let him take her by her shoulder, wincing of the bruise he touched, and lead her inside the arcade, which also had not changed at all. She sat down on a stool and he set a huge chocolate milkshake in front of her.   
  
"DO you want to talk about it?" He asked, smiling concernedly at her. Usagi shrugged. "It was nothing, really. I just got caught between a youma and the senshi and the youma decided that Usagi shish-cabobs would be quite lovely, thank you."  
  
Despite himself, he laughed. "You don't seem very upset. Do you need a doctor?"  
  
She shook her head. "I'm fine. I've just decided to accept my luck."   
  
Just then, Minako and Makoto walked in, laughing over some joke. They looked around but for some reason did not spot the odangoed blonde at the counter. They moved to a booth and ordered from the cheerful waitress, a girl Usagi did not know.  
  
Motoki watched Usagi's eyes follow them, and saw something unfamiliar in her eyes. Instead of a sky blue they were a clouded gray, and held more wisdom than they should have. He blurted out his thoughts before he knew it and wished to God he'd worded it some other way.  
  
"You're different, somehow. Did you cut you hair?" The words sounded almost accusing in his ears, falling with a flat sound. He half expected her to become angry.  
  
But she only smiled sadly at him. "No, Motoki-chan. I didn't cut my..."  
  
She was cut off by a loud crash as a body came through the window and landed with a crack and a thud in a pile of bloody, crunching glass on Motoki's clean floor.  
  
Usagi reacted instantly and without thinking, for now was not a time for thought. She fell away form her chair-- at least, in the slow-motion surrealistically of it, that's how it seemed to Motoki-- and was at the man's side before the screams of the terrified customers even began. She didn't even glance at his face as she went to work.  
  
He watched as her suddenly skillful fingers sought out a pulse in the man's neck. She nodded, and he supposed she had indeed found one. She murmured something to herself and her eyes inspected the visible wounds. One arm at a strange angle-- broken, but not through skin. Definitely some broken ribs, a given with the way the man had went though the window, combined with the ungraceful landing. And she disliked the look of the cut on the man's neck; it was too deep and to close to his throat for her taste.  
  
Working quickly she snapped the bones in the man's forearm back into place and ripped a thick strip from the stiff linen hem of her skirt to bind it. Motoki was amazed at how easily she tore the quality fabric.  
  
But Usagi had other worries. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Minako and Makoto slip away to henshin and frowned. There was no youma here that she could sense-- why do such a foolish thing? She did not stop her work, through. She slipped the sailor handkerchief from around her shoulders and made a hasty bandage for the gash on his neck. She opened his shirt: thick, gray wool, strange for the summer. But she made no remarkable note of it and with graceful fingers sought out his ribs.  
  
He stirred as she found a cracked rib dangerously near his lungs, but yet still she looked not at his face.  
  
"Hold still, damn you." She ordered. "I must see how bad it is. If you've punctured something you're in trou...."  
  
She had glanced up at his face, finally. She fought down a gasp and nodded curtly at his questioning, clouded eyes.  
  
"I don't know who you were fighting in the middle of the street in downtown Tokyo, Kunzite, but I do know you are very mortal and if you have any desire to live you won't move before I pick out some of this glass. It's in your best interest. I am almost finished."  
  
He knew he had a concussion by his pounding headache and his vision, which was little better than a sea of gray fog. Yet in his bewildered state he knew that voice. He knew it very well, and it shocked him that she would be here, in Tokyo. He'd given up all hope....  
  
He sat up, ignoring the little darts of pain, and clutched desperately at her shirt like a madman, searching, pleading.  
  
"Princess... princess... is that you? Oh, my princess... my lovely princess... forgive me... forgive me... I tried to warn you... I did... I have been your spy all this time... waiting for you... I swear I never betrayed you... princess... oh..."   
  
Her mind reeled. She never thought she would seem the elegant Kunzite reduced to a puddle of relieved tears. Quite suddenly she realized the meaning of his words just as she saw the senshi rounding the corner, ready for battle. She knew, somehow, that they would kill this man on sight, whoever he was in this world.  
  
She was caught, conflicted. She hated to trust him, but then, he could give her the answers she so desperately needed.  
  
"Quickly! Come with me! You too, Motoki!" With strength that left Motoki breathless, she lifted Kunzite, who was more than twice her size, up into her deceptively delicate arms with all the care of a protective mother to a babe. She carried him swiftly into the back room, Motoki following, with his jaw dragging the ground.  
  
She laid Kunzite on a bench and made a pillow for his head out of a blanket that lay on a shelf.   
  
"Stay here with him." She said to Motoki. "Whatever happens, whatever they do, do NOT let the senshi back here." With that, she was back out the door, shutting it behind her.  
  
Motoki looked down at the dazed and wounded man, who was just beginning to clear his head. "So-- you know Usagi-chan?" He made a cheerful attempt at conversation, but Kunzite didn't seem to hear him.  
  
"Where is Zoisite? Where did the princess go? Who are you?" He stared accusingly at Motoki.   
  
The two men continued to stare at each other for a few minutes, each equally baffled with the other.  
  
-------+-------  
  
  
Usagi locked the storeroom door behind her. She could see the senshi out in the street facing off against a man whom she could have sworn was Zoisite. The arcade was now empty, so she checked for cameras and then transformed.  
  
As she did so, she found herself calling out strange words. She checked herself and sighed. "Moon Silver Power, Make up!"  
  
At first, her power was confused, as though it were not sure of the command. But finally, after two seconds of pulsating light, it responded properly and she stood in her right uniform, staff in hand and sword slung in a golden sheath over her shoulder.  
  
She stole around to the side of the building at approached the fight from behind. Yes, it was indeed Zoisite. And from the way he was slinging energy bolts at the two senshi, he was not friendly.  
  
She aimed her staff at the weak point between his shoulder blades. "Moon Lovely Rainbow, Kiss!" She whispered, sending the streak of raw power arching towards her enemy's back.  
  
Venus and Jupiter weren't sure of exactly what had happened as Zoisite suddenly let out a blood-curdling scream to end all screams and twisted, letting them glimpse a mangled mass of sizzling flesh where his back had once been. He let out a howl as he caught sight of Sailormoon, who prepared another attack as he vanished into the dark realm.  
  
Sailormoon let out an oath that made Jupiter jump and Venus wonder where her innocent leader had learnt such words. "I thought that would be enough to kill him! God damn it! How strong can a king be?" In her anger she whirled to face the two senshi. "Why the hell aren't they dead yet?"  
  
Venus's voice was meek, a first in the cheerful girl's life. "Sailormoon-san, we've already destroyed Jadeite and Nephrite; they are very strong. We've managed to keep them back for two and so years now. I'd say that's pretty good."   
  
"Hey, what happened to your fuku?" Jupiter asked, frowning. "It's different... somehow..."   
  
Sailormoon searched for an excuse to flee. "Oh, dear! I left Motoki in the storeroom-- I shoved him in there so he wouldn't be hurt."  
  
"That reminds me! What happened to Kunzite?" Jupiter persisted.  
  
"Uh, he teleported away. He was injured pretty bad-- I guess he and Zoisite had been fighting..."  
  
Venus nodded. "Yeah, I'd believe that. They bicker so much.... although I've never seen him actually hurt anyone. He usually foils up his own plans..." She shook her head, disconcerted. "Like he wants to help us but can't..."  
  
"Yeah, well..." Sailormoon was agitated over the way they were gawking at her and her fuku and her staff, and Jupiter had stood on tiptoe to look at the magnificent sword on her back. "I'd better go check on Motoki now."  
  
She turned to go as Mercury and Mars appeared, ready to fight and sorely disappointed when they found it was already over. Mars said something to her back but she didn't hear it, nor did she really care.  
  
Her Minako would have known something was wrong in an instant. Her Minako would have had more sense and questioned the new fuku and strange attack.  
  
She was upset now, and turned sharply on her heel into the side street to dehenshin. But before she had a chance a glowing sword came out of no where, striking straight for her face.  
  
She called on every bit of instinctive training she had. She dropped the staff and it vanished before it hit the ground, and yanked the sword of Etern from its sheath and brought it back just barely in time to block the blow.  
  
She had done this so fast that to Sailor Uranus it seemed as though the sword had materialized from the staff. She blinked and gave Sailormoon all the time she needed. The next thing Uranus knew her sword was in the smaller girl's hand and the crystal blade of the Etern was pressed against her throat. Uranus tried to look away from the steel-colored eyes boring into her own, but she could not.  
  
"You take one more move, Kaioh Michiru, and you'll loose a lover, senshi or no. I haven't a single qualm about killing someone who makes a sneak attack upon me. And if you think I'm bluffing take one more step and see."  
  
Neptune effectively froze two yards from Sailormoon's back, wondering how she had given herself away.  
  
"Now, I am going to sheath my sword. Shall you do the same or shall I keep this?" She waited until Uranus had scowled an affirmative before removing the blade and handing the taller woman the now dim sword. Uranus let the talisman vanish before Sailormoon relaxed the smaller fraction and sheathed her own weapon.  
  
"You're not Sailormoon. Who are you?" Sailor Neptune moved to stand beside Uranus, who was nursing her wounded ego.  
  
Sailormoon looked amused. "Why don't you think I am who I say I am?" She fought down a smile. "The inner senshi certainly think I am."  
  
Uranus rolled her eyes. "We are not stupid. We've been watching Sailormoon fight-- or rather try to fight-- for over a year. She can't even lift a sword, let alone use it so skillfully, just as skillfully as your use your staff, and I can only imagine what that little girl would to with that. You are graceful and you are strong, two things Sailormoon has never been. And you know who we are."  
  
Sailormoon nodded. She relaxed completely. "Alright. I will trust you, as I swear you may trust me by my mother's spirit, Queen Serenity. Dehenshin and follow me. I have something to take care of before I tell you all I know. I already know who you are so I am sure you will have little conflict with that." To make a point, she turned, dehenshined, and walked inside, the beautiful gold-silk scabbard of the strange sword still slung across her back.  
  
Perhaps that is what made Uranus respect her.  
  
"I know her." Michiru had already dehenshined and the expression on her face was thoughtful. "That was Usagi. That clumsy girl at the Sailor V game. How peculiar."  
  
Haruka shook her head. "At the moment, not really." She stepped up and her hand was on the doorknob to open it when it opened by itself and she stared in the face of Kunzite.  
  
She gasped his name and went for her sword, but Usagi's voice stopped her. She had no idea why she obeyed, except that there was something in the steely tone that left no room for argument.   
  
"No! he is wounded, do not harm him further. I have cause to think his story is worth while in the screwed up world of yours." She helped Kunzite out of the arcade and slammed the door behind her.  
  
Michiru watched, fascinated. Kunzite was over six feet tall and he was pure lean muscle, yet Usagi was supporting over half his weight as effortlessly as had he been a child. Yes, there was something too strange here... even for them...  
  
"Haruka resolutely shut up on the subject. "Where are you taking him?" She demanded, wary of the king's half-conscious pose.  
  
Usagi frowned. "Good point. Let me borrow your cell, Michiru. Please."  
  
Wordlessly, the violinist handed it over and she and Haruka and Kunzite watched intently as Usagi dialed a number. There was a second of silence as the other phone rang.  
  
"Yes, it's me. You had to ask?" Usagi laughed as a way of greeting. "I assume you know?" There was another pause. Usagi nodded thoughtfully. "No, I've got it. Ooh, nice location. And money? Ack... where do you people get all that?... No!-- don't tell me. I can? Yippee. Thanks. Tell your sister she's in deep. Uh-huh. No problem. I should kill you but I won't." She listened to the reply, smiled, and hung up. She handed it back to Michiru. "Come on. It's only a few blocked away."  
  
She added under her breath, "Heesh, if I'd known about THAT I wouldn't have worried so much earlier..."  
  
Kunzite leaned on Usagi most of the way, each step more painful than the last for his injuries. It was a tense journey, and no one spoke at all. It was forever before they came to a suburb and Usagi led them into a nice, fairly-sized two level.  
  
"This is it?" Haruka asked doubtfully.  
  
"Who's going to look for a dark king here?" Usagi retorted.   
  
"She has a point." Michiru agreed, ignoring the dirty look Haruka gave her. "I certainly wouldn't. And it's a marvelous place to hide if you're average. With some hair dye, no one would ever find you."  
  
Kunzite concurred. "Perfect for a spy."  
  
Usagi eyed him warily. "You need sleep. In here." She dragged him away and returned a moment later. "He's out, and will be for a while. We may speak now... I still don't know if I should trust him..."  
  
Haruka felt a bit freer to speak now that Kunzite was gone. "Then why is he here? He's the enemy-- or at least, he's ours..."  
  
Usagi looked at her rather coldly, and for some odd reason, Haruka was ashamed of the comment. "I don't appreciate that tone. Now, if you'll have a seat, I'll explain everything."  
  
For the first time, Haruka looked around the room they stood in, her back to the door.  
  
It was a lovely room, professional touches screaming from every corner. It had been decorated in warm tones of red and orange and brown, making it very welcoming and serene. There was a fireplace and big bay windows. Despite herself she liked it. She turned her head and started back.  
  
She found herself staring into a kitchen colored solely in the boldest eggplant purple and the brightest sunny yellow. She was, at first, taken aback by the contrasting color, but the longer she looked the more she liked.  
  
"Interesting colors." Michiru remarked, also looking into the kitchen. "Who's your designer?"  
  
Usagi smiled mysteriously. "Oh, you'll meet her soon enough. I find her very unlike her sister, whom I find it unlikely you'll meet. I'll make some tea-- you're free to look around it you'd like. Don't disturb Kunzite, though. He's in one of the upstairs bedrooms, the blue door, on your right. He made a disparaging remark of the color scheme so I had to known him out." She said this all in a very conversational tone of voice; she might have been discussing the weather or the news.   
  
Haruka found it very disturbing.  
  
She turned to her partner only to find Michiru half way up the stairs. "Oh, Haruka, come look!" Her voice was enraptured. Usagi giggled as Haruka obediently followed.  
  
"I thought you'd like that." The Sailor Pluto of this world had done the house as fancy hit her, explaining the beautiful and very separate color schemes. The upstairs hallway made one feel like you were truly underwater, in the most beautiful stretch of ocean ruins. Setsuna had incorporated her taste and money to make it seem very, very real.  
  
She'd had a quick look around after giving Kunzite that little love tap.   
  
There were two bedrooms, a bath, and another room that was a complete miniature gymnasium. The bedroom Kunzite had been placed in was in cool shades of pink and lavender, unmistakenably a girl's room. The other had a more masculine theme of shape lines and bold reds and blacks. The art on the wall were rare pieces of Michiru's, paintings of dark scenes of bloody battle.  
  
She was kind of scared of that room.  
  
The bathroom was full of pretty shades of blue and mauve. She hadn't had time to inspect the workout room but, knowing Pluto, it was supplied with anything she could possibly need.  
  
Just as the kettle whistled loudly, Michiru walked down the stairs gracefully. She looked at Usagi and there was the faintest trace of a smile on her elegant lips. "Haruka has found the music collection in the red room." She informed Usagi. "Apparently your designer friend knew all of her favorite records and soundproofed each room. She's playing Holst's Mars Symphony as loud as the CD player will go."  
  
Usagi frowned. "I've never heard of it. By the time I started to like music it was banned. Something about how it would inspire nationalism. I never understood it. Of course, no one ever understood Queen Beryl..."  
  
As though the mention of the accursed name had summoned her, Haruka came down the stairs. "I love your music." She announced. Then her face lost its brightness, and a dark frown graced her lips. "What about Queen Beryl?" She inquired.  
  
Usagi waited until she'd set up the tray and carried it into the living room and everyone had taken a seat and was sipping a cup of tea before she answered.  
  
"You were partially wrong in saying I am not Usagi." She said to them, staring down into the deep brown of her cup. "I am very much Tsukino Usagi... but I am not YOUR Tsukino Usagi. I... this is going to sound strange, no matter how I say it. But, I am from another universe, one of the thousands parallel to this one. In my universe, Beryl attacked three months before my eleventh birthday and in a short while had the entire earth under her control. It was the only world I knew, a world where your parents taught you self defense as soon as you could walk and where no matter who you were you did not venture out past dusk and where youma and human soldiers regularly beat down doors at midnight did whatever they liked with the inhabitants."  
  
She paused for a breath. She dared not look up at their faces, but had she, she would have seen nothing. Their expressions were closed, their faces impassive, but they were listening rather intently.  
  
"That was my world." She frowned, her voice matter-of-fact. "I saw little happiness in it. Strange laws were in effect: no sailor anything. All the cute little outfits, all the school fukus, everything even pertaining to a sailor anything was burned. Terrible things happened to people found with such things. That's why, when a little cat named Luna found me and gave me that blasted broach and told me to henshin, I was afraid at first. My senshi fuku is a sailor costume. I realized why Beryl didn't want that kind of stuff around: who'd want to be reminded of their own failures?" She closed her eyes. She could still see herself in her bedroom, the very first rush of power.   
  
She could remember exactly how it felt, how great and wonderful it had seemed. But in reality it was only a drip-drop to what roared in her veins now. The pure blood of Etern.  
  
She began to explain how it all began, with Mercury and Mars. She explained about the raids they'd broken up, of how each senshi had been found or had joined them, and all the good things and all the bad things she had done. About how she was the moon princess and then was turned into the daughter of Etern and her great power. Against her closed lids, unaware of the tears falling down her cheeks, she relived each moment in all of the agonizing splendor. She told them how the kings had died and their good counterparts found, and finally how the queen had killed herself and how Metalia had gone down in a blaze of lashing, wounding glory.  
  
"That's how I got all of this. She motioned to the various bruises, gashes, and scrapes on her body. "It appears her speciality are huge fireballs that once you extinguish them explode like grenades." She added, grimly.   
  
"After the battle I was alone. The dimension that our Metalia lived in was nothing more than dead space and debris. I don't know what happened-- the ginzuishou was waiting for my order to take me away... and I was just thinking about how nice it would be to see everyone again... and remembering how wonderful it was before Beryl... and then..." She gasped. She understood now. "Oh, no, no! It thought... that was my wish! That's how I ended up here! Because this is a world where Usagi was happy but the senshi were still here!" She groaned, and buried her face in her hands. "And I cannot undo the ginzuishou's magic." She felt like sobbing.  
  
She was just about to follow through on that urge when a warm, gentle hand was laid on her shoulders. Her head snapped up and she was staring into Michiru's kind eyes.   
  
"It's alright, Usagi-san. I think you, too, need some rest. Don't worry about Kunzite, either. We'll watch you both."  
  
That was all the encouragement Usagi needed. She made her way to one of the downstairs bedrooms, noted vaguely that the walls were a pretty shade of green, and promptly fainted.  
  
~*~  
  
I love me. Don't you just LOVE me? Oh, yeah. About this world's Usagi... hehe... you're not going to believe where she is... yuppers, I've been writing ahead... 


	2. Saving the Savior

Purging the World in the Blood of an Angel  
Chapter Two: Saving the Savior   
Black Beyond  
Black_beyond@hotmail.com  
~-~  
  
Here's the second chapter. I'm using my aunt's laptop so I don't know if everything came through okay. If it didn't I guess you'll just have to wait for the weekend.   
  
And I refuse to post until I get six reviews. I know more than six people have to be reading this! For the love of flat-chested monkeys, people! Review! Don't make me stop writing just because you won't take four seconds out of your busy schedule to write a bloody message one line long!  
  
Anyway, it's almost four in the morning. I'm going to bed now. Bye!  
  
Update: I just realized I made a booboo. You can tell I'm working on another story! I forgot I was working with Zoisite and not Jadeite, like in my other top secret fic. I fixed it. Sorry for any confusion!!!  
  
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Her internal clock told her it had been exactly twenty-five hours, forty-one minutes and odd seconds since she'd passed out when Usagi awoke. She was dazed for a moment, her eyes taking in the purple tones of the room. It took her a few seconds to recover all the details of the previous days. She cursed softly and punched the softness of the bed around her.  
  
Just as she was turning to stand up, Kunzite walked in, bearing a tray of tea. He had rid himself of his bloody uniform and opted for a pair of black jeans and a black t-shirt that read across in big, bold, white letters, "I used to be Schizophrenic, but we're okay now." It was funny, seeing the usually stylish man in such.  
  
"Oh, you're awake!" He said, delightedly. "Kaioh-sama sent me in case. Ten'oh-sama had to leave for a senshi battle and then a race, but she'll return soon. Are you up to eating, Princess?" He looked concerned at her pale color.  
  
She giggled. "I'm not a china doll, Kunzite-san. I regain strength faster than you think. I'm up to anything now, be it saving the world or a kitten. And you have a lot of explaining to do." She did not stand, but Kunzite suddenly found her to tower over him. How did she do that? "I want to know why you were in Beryl's army, the story behind it, and why you were stupid enough to engage in a petty duel with Zoisite if you pretending to be his ally?"  
  
Kunzite grimaced. "Don't you think that your senshi will want to hear this as well?"  
  
"I'm listening." They both turned to find Michiru leaning against the doorframe, looking quite comfortable. Kunzite winced again, but made no further argument.   
  
"It started when Beryl attacked earth. The other planets had already succumbed to her power, the outer senshi not yet gone but they would be defeated soon. She took earth like a foot crushing an ant, and then she came after us. We four kings were protecting Endymion, the prince, in his palace hidden deep in the forest. She came upon us one by one, the other three first. If they did not agree to serve her she did the spiritual equivalent of scooping out their brains and putting a different set in. None of them wanted to serve her. They died. She possessed their bodies. They are as they are now."  
  
Usagi's face was hard, but inside she was weeping.   
  
"I watched them die-- painful, agonized, and powerless. And I saw the beings that replaced them. They were powerful and merciless. I know what I did was horrible, but if we were to ever come back against Beryl, someone would have to be hidden away in her ranks. And... I admit... cowardice played a part too. I did not want to die that way. It was not an honorable nor clean death."  
  
Michiru made a harsh comment about that, something that was strong and odd out of the usually placid woman's mouth. Usagi looked up at her sharply, realizing this. Kunzite looked wounded.  
  
"No, no." Usagi replied. "You don't remember, Michiru. It was the final desperation. When you remember it, you'll understand. People do things they don't normally do. In my final moments I impaled myself on my lover's sword and called Beryl a string of oaths I will never repeat. You chose to die quietly instead of invoking your final power and blowing up Neptune."  
  
Michiru's expression did not soften but she said no more. Kunzite didn't know what to think of the princess taking up for him so readily, so he made a note to investigate it further. All he knew was that the princess had been reincarnated as a graceful young warrior maiden. He knew her name was Usagi. That was the extent of his knowledge. He did not know she was a Sailormoon from another universe, just that she was so beautiful, like the woman he remember, and so merciful, unlike her counterpart.  
  
"So I agreed. I agreed to help. But I swear I never killed a senshi. I never seriously tried. I always messed up the scheme before any harm could come to one of your warriors. I always held back and let another do the work. I am guilty, however, and you have every right to kill me. I'll make no plea for my life. I don't deserve to."  
  
This softened Michiru's eyes. For some reason, since he did not beg for his life, she liked him better for it.   
  
Usagi was sharper. She saw something in the back of Kunzite's silver eyes, eyes like her own, and she knew he did not want to confess *this* secret to Michiru. She nodded. She had felt no lie in his words, and no man could lie before a daughter of Etern.  
  
"You'll tell me the details later, I'm sure." She said. "But my instincts tell me you're not lying, Kunzite. So for now I trust you, unless you give me cause to do otherwise. And now you'll know my secret." In as few words as possible, she told him all.   
  
Kunzite nodded. "That makes sense. You're Sailormoon, but not this Sailormoon." He looked sheepish. "I might offend you, Michiru-san, but your Sailormoon was a horrible fighter, a wimp, and not at all brilliant."  
  
Michiru shrugged. "I know."  
  
They all relaxed after that. Needless to say, an hour later when Haruka returned and found them all playing Scrabble with Kunzite waving around a dictionary ranting about how "dariye" was TOO a word-- in Lunarian-- she was a bit more than baffled.  
  
~'~   
  
  
  
"Minako, Ami, and Makoto all go to school with you. All of your classes will be with one or more of them. You've got you schedule memorized, right?" After a long night of hacking into the school's records, black hair dye, and scissors, Usagi was being escorted on a familiar path to school on the back of Haruka's motorcycle with a handsome young man with shoulder length dark, dark hair the color of midnight and eyes like the moonlight. She giggled, and hugged him harder.  
  
"You bet!" She answered back, into his ear. She was having the time of her life. She'd never rode on a motorcycle before, and never with her arms wrapped around the rock-hard torso of a man powerful enough to take down the Tokyo Tower with a flick of his finger. It was a wonderful exhilaration.  
  
Kunzite came to a screeching stop in front of the gates of Juuban, sending all eyes their way. He had adopted the morbidly funny t-shirts and black jeans as an almost trademark, and looked to be having almost as much fun as Usagi in his newfound freedom. True, he had to sacrifice his one vanity-- his lovely, long hair-- but it was well worth it.  
  
"You're being envied." He helped her off the bike and embraced her tightly, whispering into her ear.   
  
Usagi grinned, sending a sidewards glance to the furious boys and swooning girls of Juuban High. "I know. Isn't it fabulous?" She hugged him tighter and then released him. "It's good to have an ally, Zi-chan."  
  
"It's good to be forgiven, Princess." He whispered back. And then with another screeching of tires and a sweep of a long leather jacket, he was gone. Usagi sighed. The Kunzite she remembered had always been unintentionally romantic beyond Love's dreams.  
  
"Oh, Usagi! Usagi-chan!" Minako dashed across the schoolyard, her blue eyes wide as she giggled insanely. Makoto was not far behind. "Who was THAT? Oh, what a HUNK! I can't blame you at all! YOU GO!" She high-fived Usagi and then swept her into a victory dance. "What's his name? How old is he? Where'd you meet him?"  
  
"Usagi-chan! You so go, girlfriend. How hot was he!?" Makoto was equally enthusiastic. "It's about time you found another guy since Mamoru dumped you! I hope he's fuming right now."  
  
Usagi couldn't help it. She beamed, deciding to figure out the history behind her and Mamoru later. "His name," she thought fast, "Is Seitosei. He's nineteen, and I met him yesterday, after the fight."   
  
Minako squealed. "Ooh, what an entrance! What an exit! Is that where you got the roses? How romantic?" Usagi nodded. Kunzite had stopped at a street vendor on the way and insisted on buying her two white roses to twine into her odango. She liked had liked the effect and miraculously they had not come out during the wild ride.  
  
"Yo. Odango. Seems you've finally got a boyfriend. How much did you pay him?"  
  
Usagi was indignant by the unfamiliar voice that jibed at her, and spun around on her heel to tell him off. Her gasp was not inaudible.  
  
He looked very much like Mamoru. But there was something else, an almost feminine curve to the face. He was shorter, and his hair was brought back into a long ponytail.  
  
"Seiya!" Makoto yelled angrily. "You leave Usagi alone!"  
  
"No, no. It's okay, Mako-chan." She wasn't used to the girl being so aggressive yet, but she could feel the aura of a senshi around Seiya. This was interesting. "Good morning. I didn't have to pay him anything. He said that after you, anyone would be an improvement." She retorted, and smiled to herself as she watched the boy's face flush.   
  
"Nice one, Odango." He said sourly. She'd never insulted him back before. With a shock, Usagi realized he liked her. Oh, dear. Funny way to show it, though. "You're actually developing a brain in there. See you later!"  
  
"Oh, nice one, Usagi!" Minako crowed. "Teaches you a lesson! Have at you, sir!" She yelled to his retreating back. "Et shoo, Boot!"  
  
Ami, who'd joined them after Seiya had arrived, sweat dropped. "That's et tu, Brute, Minako."  
  
Minako shrugged. "Whatever."  
  
Usagi smiled. "I think he likes me." She commented. "He's kind of cute, too. If he weren't so snotty." Perhaps it's an act, she thought to herself. He seemed hurt by my insult-- what did he except?  
  
She probed into his mind while he was still in sight and found it closed. She frowned. How peculiar.  
  
"Earth to Usagi! Hello! Usagi! Come in! This is Minako! Ah, you were daydreaming about Seiya, weren't you? Ah, Seitosei is going to be jealous! I'm gonna tell him you were mooning over the school celebrity, instead of calling him a ponytailed pig, like you usually do."  
  
Usagi's widened. Exactly what kind of girl was she in this world? "I call him that?!" She exclaimed. "How horrible of me! Where are my manners? Who is my mother? I never... not once... well, in the case of Mamoru... but that was different! He was following me around, practically stalking me, saying things about how Beryl wasn't that bad and he knew who I was! At least, I think he did. No, how could he? When I walked in I was normal.. or was I? I don't remember. I'll have to ask Rei when I get back..." She began to wander to her next class, still wondering aloud, her three friends watching her like she'd grown a new head that resembled Zoisite.   
  
"Is it just me," Makoto stated slowly. "Or is Usagi acting ditzier than usual?"  
  
But Ami's eyes were narrowed. "I don't know." But why was there suddenly a wisdom in Usagi's eyes that had not been there a week ago? And as for her eyes... they were so gray... almost silver....  
  
"Ami! Don't you go into the Twilight Zone, either! Come on, the bell's about to ring. We should get to class. Odango Atama's on time today! How weird." Minako covering up her suspicious thoughts with a bright demeanor and dragged Ami to their next class, with Makoto following a still bewildered Usagi.  
  
"I'm not sure... I'm really not. I think I remembering dehenshining... but perhaps it was only a dream. After loosing so many quarts of blood perhaps you're delirious for a while. I'm not sure. Perhaps I should do it again sometime... no, as Etern I cant loose that much blood... it'll just get replaced... hi Naru, how are you?... And you, Sensei Haruna? Hmm... I'll just have to ask Rei-chan..."  
  
She sat down in a seat in the front row and took out her textbooks. She glanced idly at the board and noticed she was in Algebra II and saw that an assignment was due in ten minutes. She turned to the page and did it in five, all thirty problems, still muttering under her breath with a blank glaze over her gray eyes.  
  
Haruna watched Usagi do the work and was bewildered. This girl, who was in danger of flunking the first semester, had just done work that she thought was at least five years over the blonde's capabilities like she was Mizuno, barely even noticing what she was doing. She was concerned, very concerned. She walked over to Usagi and laid her hand on the girl's forehead. It was ice cold, like touching a corpse.  
  
"Yie!" She yelped and jerked her hand away. Usagi blinked and looked up at her, and finally took note of her surroundings. "Sensei Haruna! Oh, I'm sorry. I must have blanked for a moment." She smiled, trying to show that she was normal. "Here's the work that's due. I'm sorry I didn't do it last night, but the last week has been very chaotic to me. I'm sure you understand, right, sensei?"  
  
Such a respectful tone and posture from a girl who regularly called her H-chan and slept through her class every day? For a moment Haruna felt that the appropriate response would be either to ask if the girl were feeling well or faint. But students were starting to file in and she had always been taught to never look a gift horse in the mouth. If some alien from Mars had replaced her worst student, well, so long as it acted like this, Haruna certainly wasn't going to raise a ruckus.  
  
"Of course, Usagi-chan." She firmly replied, took the paper, and marched up to her desk and resolutely sat down. She noticed that Makoto, one of Usagi's close friends, was also giving Usagi a funny look as the blonde got up and approached a girl whom she had the same schedule and proceeded to write down all the assignments from yesterday to do before they were due. And more disturbing was the fact the girl didn't seem undaunted in the slightest she had a ten-page report due on the details of Alchemy in two hours. In fact, when Keiko rather hesitantly informed Usagi of this, she had beamed.  
  
"That's wonderful! I've been needing an excuse to remember my lessons. This will be a challenge." And had flounced back to her seat and had began to write furiously.   
  
She was three pages into the report and appeared to know exactly what she was writing about when the bell did ring. Haruna reluctantly stood up and opened her mouth to quiet the class and realized she didn't have to. Everyone was rapt with staring at Usagi, who actually looked intelligent as she scribbled madly in perfectly formed kanji.  
  
Usagi noticed her teacher's stare and turned red. "Whoops!" She put a clean sheet of paper down and opened her math book again. "Sorry, Sensei Haruna. It won't happen again."  
  
Haruna felt her knees tremble and her eyes loll, but kept herself together. "It's alright, Usagi-chan."   
  
This was going to be one of those days.  
  
And gym wasn't any better.  
  
"Damn! Oh, damn! I can't stand this!" Usagi was changing for gym class. The other girls in the locker room looked at her strangely, especially Minako, who was changing beside her.  
  
"Hey. What's wrong?" Minako pulled her shirt over her head and looked at Usagi. She seemed alright, no tears or bruises.  
  
Usagi giggled. "Yeah. I'm just hyper. I feel like bouncing off the walls. What are we playing today? I hope it's not football. I hate football... how are you supposed to kick the ball into the goal with all the other people running around? It's stupid and crazy and... hey, it's raining. We can't play football. Yea!"  
  
Now everyone *was* looking at her strangely.  
  
"No, Usagi." There was definitely something up here, Minako decided. "We're playing volleyball." She noticed how her friends eyes brightened into an almost bluish color, but said nothing. Since when was Usagi so happy to play volleyball? She used to hate it!  
  
She found out why, ten minutes later, when the first serve curved gracefully straight towards Usagi. Usagi's usual rescuer, a boy named Heero, jumped to hit it but Usagi was quicker. Using Heero's shoulder for leverage and even though she was a good two meters from the net. she jumped high into the air and with a resounding smack hit the ball and spiked it so hard that when it hit the other side of the floor-- nobody was crazy enough to try and stop it-- it bounced back up and hit a rafter.  
  
Minako continued to be amazed, along with the rest of the class and the baffled sensei, as Usagi continued to play with a level of skill that even she, Aino Minako, would have found very unnerving had they been on opposite teams. And soon enough, it was just that. Everyone had given up with the blonde duo working together and Usagi had crossed under the net.   
  
It was her serve. All eyes were on Minako as she frowned and bit her lip. She forgot she was in gym class playing against the leader of the senshi. She was back in England, and this was another tournament. She was playing against a player just like her, the best in the country. She was completely in her zone as she brought the hard white ball up and hit it with all of her force as a senshi.  
  
Usagi smirked. She knew that power. But it was no match for Etern. Careful to lower her strength to match the adrenaline-filled Minako, she dove an impossible length and returned it like a bullet. The volley was endless and impossible, and there was no end to the highness of the jumps or the agility of the maneuvers. Left to right, right to left, it was dizzying,  
  
"Enough!" Usagi yelled in a voice too deep to be her own. It was like a man's voice, deep and powerful. With a mighty punch the ball slammed into the ground two feet from Minako, who had made no move to counter it. Instead of Usagi she saw a tall sailor with hair the color of moonbeams and eyes like ice, with huge golden-tipped wings and a sailor fuku of white with golden sleeves and a skirt of rainbow, with a flowing cape also white. An eight-point star adorned her forehead and the space at the center of the bow and at the center of the beautiful skirt. She carried a staff not much unlike the one Sailormoon had used earlier, only this staff was topped with a winged orb and another star.   
  
She blinked and Usagi stood taller than she should have seemed, directly opposite Minako on the court. Usagi was rather pale, as though she too had shared the vision.  
  
"Minako?" She asked uncertainly. In truth she had let her aura overtake her for the briefest second, too quick for the humans to see but she was unsure if Minako had seen or not. If she had, that was it. Her secret was blown before the inner senshi.  
  
But Minako only blinked again. "Oh, nothing. I just really spaced out for a second. Wow." She shook her head to clear the fuzz. "Yeah. Anyway, that was an awesome game you played."  
  
Usagi giggled loudly. "I guess all of Luna's training must finally be paying off. Wow, I didn't know I could do that." She put a hand behind her head and did her best to look like Shingo when he was really acting stupid. Apparently it was a good imitation of Their-Usagi, for Minako laughed and nodded.  
  
"Neither could I. Heh heh, I guess we got caught up in the game... everyone's staring at us..."  
  
~'~  
  
  
"Zi-chan!" Usagi squealed, as the pale man in black screeched up to the gates just as she walked out. He climbed off the beautiful bike gracefully and crossed the yard quickly, turning every girl's head and even some of the boys'. In one sweeping motion he swept her into his arm and spun her around, her laughing madly.  
  
"Stop! Stop it!" She shrieked, and he set her down, not noticing the three dehenshined senshi behind her staring at him. "Zi-chan, you baka. You'll make people start getting ideas about us." She winked at him and he laughed, a bold baritone filling the air.  
  
"Hi, I'm Minako." Minako marched forward and stuck her hand out. He took it briefly, recognizing who she was instantly. The bow was a dead giveaway. "This is Makoto and this is Ami. Are you Usagi's boyfriend?"  
  
Kunzite blinked, and then grinned. This was Princess Minako, alright, in one of her acting roles she played so well. He could see the calculating shrewdness behind her eyes.   
  
"I'm sorry, if I told you that, I'd have to kill you. And it would be very wrong of me to deprive the world of such beauty as yours." He smiled dashingly at her and she almost swooned. Oh, who the hell CARED if he were evil, with a smile like that? And besides, what were the chances Usagi's new boyfriend would be evil?   
  
"Yeah..." Makoto had stars in her eyes. "Like my old boyfriend..." Ami and Minako rolled their eyes and Usagi looked confused, but took Kunzite's offered arm and couldn't help a smile.   
  
"Gomen, minna-chan. Zi-chan and I have something to do."  
  
Ami's eyes went wide. "But, Usagi, we have a... a... club meeting! At Rei-chan's! She'll absolute kill you if you don't show up! And... uhm... Sorry, Seitosei-kun can't come."  
  
Kunzite looked amused. "I can't keep you from your responsibilities, Usagi-sama. I'll just pick you up. Where does Rei-san live?"  
  
Usagi hoped desperately that she knew. Giving the senshi a nervous glance she gave him the address of the Hiwaka Shrine, before Beryl's takeover, before the streets were renamed. Thankfully this seemed to be right, for they said nothing. Usagi said to meet her there in about an hour. This too, seemed right.  
  
He made to leave and Usagi pulled him into a tight hug and whispered careully into his ear.  
  
"I might have made a big mistake today. If there's a problem I'll contact you. I may need rescuing. Ja, Kunzite."  
  
He nodded. "Sayonara, Usagi-sama." And then he was gone. Usagi sighed. If only Mamoru weren't her prince... she could honestly learn to love that man...  
  
She wasn't sure of the way to the Hiwaka shrine, so she followed the other three, her head down. They had been walking a while, talking about stupid things like clothing and boys, things of no true interest to Usagi anymore, when a hush fell over the other three.  
  
"Look." Makoto said, in a very low tone. "It's Mamoru-san. He's with Motoki's little sister again. Do you think he likes her?"  
  
Usagi looked, not quite understanding of the funny looks Minako and Ami were giving her. It was indeed Mamoru, in an awful green jacket, a girl about a year older than Ami beside him. They were in front of the Arcade, talking. Mamoru was smiling at her.  
  
"That's nice." Usagi shrugged. "What about it? They look nice together."  
  
Ami glanced at her again doubtfully. "Are you sure you're okay, Usagi? You're not going to cry again?"  
  
Makoto grinned. "Atta girl, Usagi! You show him you don't need him! You ought to go by the arcade later with Seitosei and show him just what he's been missing. I hope he dies of jealousy." She added something under her breath that was probably vulgar and about Mamoru's mother.  
  
"He's looking this way." Minako still sounded uncertain. "Oh, I can't believe him. How could he do that to you, Usagi? And he still hasn't given you a good reason? Just that he doesn't want to go out with a little girl like you?"  
  
Usagi started. She was a WHAT? That stupid... at least her Mamoru had never dared... oh, that son of a... She felt her face burn with anger. "Minna, I will be right back." For some reason she felt like revenge. It was probably just stress and indignation, but no man called her a little girl. Not after what she'd been thought and not after she'd become what she was.   
  
All they saw was a glimmer of Usagi's aura and her muttering under her breath. "Senshi, don't be alarmed. Luna-- Luna taught me this." She fibbed quickly, and then was a blinding flash of light and a woman stood in Usagi's place. It took a moment for them to recognized her.  
  
"Usagi!" Ami and Makoto breathed at the same time, but Minako said nothing. She was too stunned, for this was the same woman she had seen on the Volleyball court, only minus the stars and fuku. Instead, she wore a pretty black dress, and her hair, now silver, cascaded freely down her back. She was in no way older, but more mature. Her gray eyes flashed at Mamoru.  
  
'See what I really am?' She taunted him mentally. He started and stared at her, his blue eyes wide. 'You think I am a little girl. I am Sailor Cosmos, you fool. I am more than you will ever see again in any millennia. You will never own me. You will never control me. You will never see me. Not like I see you. And I see a coward inside you. And don't bother pointing me out to Uzasaki: only senshi can me in my true form when I decide to show it."  
  
"Why?" He yelled.  
  
The senshi looked at her curiously.  
  
'Because I am only when I am. Because no true mortal may see me and live.' the lines of her body flickered and a golden-blonde Usagi in dumpy school fuku stood. "Because only a god is worthy!" She replied in a carrying shout.   
  
"Baka Odango Atama!" He shouted back. She merely turned her back on him. "Minna, I'm sick of the immature baka. They continued  
  
Mamoru, however, kept fuming. He was furious with her, that she had not insulted him in return, that she had displayed her power in full daylight, and that she had walked away. That she had not cried.  
  
"Mamoru? Are you alright?" Uzasaki asked, worried. She watched as he turned and punched the side of the wall angrily. He looked more livid than she'd ever seen the usually controlled man, and didn't know quite what to do.  
  
She was about to ask, but there was a loud beeping noise. It was his beeper.. or something. She wasn't sure when they stared making beepers that doubled as watches... and phones?  
  
"Mamoru-san, this is Rei. There's trouble at the temple. Everyone get here fast. I can't do anything alone against this one."  
  
Mamoru cursed very loudly, apologized to Uzasaki, and then took off at a run. He went for the rooftops and transformed as he ran, the extra boost o speed allowing him to reach the street in front of Hiwaka in minutes. He took in the scene and was floored. Sailormoon was fighting gracefully with a long staff, and her fuku was strange.   
  
She wore a Sailor Fuku with a skirt of shimmering gold. The bows were silver, sparkling with some unknown glitter. The locket was in the center of the bow on her chest. A silver tiara was on her forehead, and a dark violet gem inside it. her movements were sure, and she fought to kill, not wound, as they usually did, against the four youma.  
  
He could see Uranus and Neptune, but instead of fighting they were keeping the inner senshi from distracting Sailormoon-- or helping her, which Jupiter was screaming that Sailor needed desperately.  
  
Yet, she obviously did not.  
  
"Moon Firelight Beam!" She shot a nasty looking arrow-shaped beam into one of the youma's stomachs. It went straight through and left a gaping hole. The youma let out a horrible scream and collapsed into dust.  
  
She fought two of them physically, while the third agitated the other senshi. He paid closer attention to his ex. The youma were attacking quickly, not giving her time to shout an attack. But regardless she seemed to be fairing well, with her staff and her kicks. But she was becoming frustrated.  
  
"That's enough!" She screamed, finally. With a mighty heavy she shoved the butt of her staff hard into the purple youma's face with a crack and then, whirling so quickly she was little more than a blur, with the sharp crescent at the top sliced cleaning across the green one's back. "Moonlight Silverstar Embrace!" She yelled, and then the two youma were dust.   
  
The inner senshi, however, were having trouble with the last youma. Tuxedo Kamen abandoned all pretense of not being there and jumped in to help.   
  
Sailormoon watched. The youma was almost gone, and she was so absorbed she didn't noticed when Zoisite snuck up behind her.  
  
"Pay back for last time, you little sailor bitch." He muttered angrily and sent a huge ki blast at her back.  
  
"USAGI! WATCH OUT!" Uranus shouted, and Sailormoon turned. She saw the blast and the only thing she could do was let the power she had tried desperately to hide take over. Her staff began to glow and using it as a makeshift baseball bat she slammed it into the sphere of energy. It deflected the brunt of it away, but she was injured, blood too dark to be human running down her fuku. She winced but readied herself to fight.  
  
Zoisite was surprised. She had moved much too fast for him and it appeared as though his blast had just suddenly turned and vanished. But his eyes lit up at the blood-- he'd managed to get her anyway. Good.  
  
"So, Sailormoon." He said, rather rudely. "Did you kill him or did you just let him go and he's too afraid to come back?"  
  
Sailormoon laughed. "If you mean Kunzite then perhaps I should ask you. He was gone when I went inside." She pointed her staff threateningly. "You should run away, little king, and tell Beryl that the Daughter of Etern demands she recant her declaration of war upon the senshi."  
  
"The who?" Zoisite mocked. But Beryl's loud voice sounded in his mind.   
  
This Daughter! Ask about her. I am curious. Do not yet attack!  
  
Zoisite scowled. He opened his mouth to do as directed, but Sailormoon grinned at him.  
  
"Oh, your queen is curious, ne? Beryl, I know you're listening. I protect the Daughter! I am the only one who knows where She is and if you want the wrath of her Father and the Universe to oppose you, please, continue wreaking havoc upon the innocent people of this planet. Make the Daughter even more angry than she already it. I remember you well, Beryl. Always a bitch. A cowardly, base-born, gaudy whore who was more likely to spit than to speak!"  
  
I've had enough of you! Beryl screamed. A swirling black portal opened beside Zoisite and the tall king shrunk away, terrified of the tall woman who emerged.  
  
"Beryl, how nice to meet you, finally. The last time I saw you I believe I was in the middle of disemboweling myself. I apologize for my previous rudeness." Sailormoon gave her a slight bow. "I trust you'll forgive me."  
  
The senshi stood, watching, wary of the new arrival. Tuxedo Kamen was all but floored. When had his klutzy odango-chan become to courageous and strong? It was very strange.   
  
Beryl, too, thought this new development was remarkable and worthy of distrust. But in her memories she recalled the image of someone quite distinguishable disemboweling themselves. Her eyes widened and she did a double take on the petite moon warrior.  
  
"Princess Serenity?" She asked, in blatant disbelief. "Can it be?"  
  
Sailormoon smiled prettily. "Of course it can be. And is. I'm very flattered you remembered me, Beryl. I do remember hearing you screaming something about how I should have waited so I could have died a proper, pain-wracked death. Let me assure you that taking a dull blade and plunging it through my abdomen was a rather agonizing experience, so you should not be entirely disappointed."  
  
Beryl, in spite of her growing fear, managed a smirk. "Sassy little bitch, as usual, Little Princess. Not so little, I see. But you are growing into your title. I trust now you will not sob over the body of your prince this time while I kill all you hold dear. No, you seem to be quite the fierce little Amazon in this life." She extended one hand, a plan formulating in her mind.  
  
"I would like to hear all about it. Tell me how this sudden change occurred in you. Tell me everything. Join me."  
  
Sailormoon didn't accept the offered limb. "Beryl, do not insult my intelligence. We both know you are no match for Etern. It is your deepest fear; I see it in your eyes. Why are you doing this? Has my mother ever done you such a grievous injury? Did Endymion choosing the moon over you really hurt you so much?"  
  
She wondered the answers to so many questions. But they could not be asked all at once, and as long as they were talking she learned much and didn't have to fight. The wound in her side grew painful but she did her best not to let it show. From what she recalled Beryl loved to talk. She would see how helpful that would be, now.  
  
Beryl sniffed. She knew the moon brat was up to something but saw no harm in chatting before she killed the weakling. "Yes! You are of no comparison to me!"  
  
Sailormoon smiled kindly. "But he's just a man. I didn't care for him then, and nor do I now. You saw how he treats me. He'd treat you the same. He's the worst kind of male, one who thinks all women must be protected. And he'll die. IN a few years he will grow old, not like you or I. Do you want to watch him grow feeble and gray and waste to nothing? Do you really?"   
  
Uranus was shocked. There was an almost friend sisterly bond between Beryl and Sailormoon, an understanding, sort of. Neither seemed willing to argue with the other and they seemed to get along rather well. She noted that Zoisite was just as disgruntled with the new events and frowned.  
  
What was their princess up to? Surely she had a plan, and wasn't talking to the enemy like they were old pals for nothing.   
  
Yet... the more she looked at Sailormoon's open gray eyes and at Beryl's wary, red ones, she began to suspect neither really had a true strategy. They were sizing each other up, true, but...  
  
She didn't know how to explain it, but it was like... relief. Yes, relief. That someone else knew what it was like to be so much alone. An empathy, a knowing that "You understand me. You understand what it is like. I would that I would love you, but you make it so I can not. Why is it so?"  
  
Yes, that was exactly it, Uranus realized. Exactly so.  
  
Beryl contemplated this, her hard mask dissolving to a sigh. She closed her eyes, and then opened them again, and her voice was resigned. "I suppose not. But... you are my enemy. I must kill you. I will rule this planet." But she didn't sound so sure.  
  
Sailormoon grasped that unsureness. This was the Beryl that had killed herself, a thousand years away. A doubtful Beryl, a Beryl who realized she had no real reason.  
  
"Why?" She demanded softly. Zoisite sensed his queen's wavering mind and was speechless. "Why must you be my enemy? Why must you rule this pathetic dirtball? Its inhabitants are crude and filthy, and it has no real value at all. Your kingdom is much greater. Why must you be uncontent with the dark kingdom?"  
  
ENOUGH! A booming, deep, inhuman voice screeched from Beryl's mouth. YOU WILL NOT CONVERT MY LOYAL SERVANT WITH YOUR LUNARIAN SORCERY! I WILL DEAL WITH YOU LATER, CHILD OF SERENITY! BERYL, ZOISITE, COME! NOW!  
  
Beryl was shocked. Never had Metalia spoken so angrily before. She turned and stomped into the portal, intending to give her mistress a tongue-lashing as of never heard before loudness. Zoisite groaned, seeing the queen's humor, and followed.   
  
Sailormoon shrugged. "At least they've gone and no one's dead yet." She smiled cheerfully and turned to face her senshi. It was then she noticed they all stared at her like she had four or five new head and each was a teletubbie replica. "What?" She demanded.  
  
"That's it!" Mercury shouted. "That's so it. I don't know who you are or where you came from, but you ARE NOT SAILORMOON!" She stomped forward and jabbed her forefinger into Sailormoon's chest. "I just scanned you, you imposter, and you reek of an energy that is not even vaguely human and has so many different properties not even the Mercury Computer up at the moon can tell if you're friend or foe! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU??"  
  
"Ami, you are so unlike your sister at times you frighten me." Sailormoon hugged the blue-haired senshi happily and skipped out of her reach. "I am so Sailormoon. Ami, you know as well as anybody that no one else can use my broach. Besides, just because I had a little too much chocolate and tried to snog Beryl doesn't mean I'm not me."  
  
Mercury looked like she desperately wanted to hurt Sailormoon, but lowered her head in defeat. "You're right. No one can trick the broach." But her eyes narrowed again. "Your aura?" She questioned, confident she now had the imposter.   
  
Sailormoon arched an eyebrow at her. "I received a power up, as my previous strength wasn't enough to off the big bad smelly things. And with the power up I got some of my memories back, you know, how to do awesome tricks and stuff. So of course my aura's a bit screwy. Yours would be to." No, it wouldn't. "I would never lie to you." Yes, I would.  
  
  
  
Looks like someone has a secret... don't worry, it's good. It's really good. Why do you think I love AU fics? You get to control everything. 


	3. I Forgot the Title

Purging the World in the Blood of an Angel  
Black Beyond  
black_beyond@hotmail.com  
"Confrontations and Discoveries"  
  
  
  
The senshi were satisfied with this. Uranus and Neptune crept away, and Mamoru   
wasted no time in confronting Sailormoon, ready to reproach her for the little   
display of magic on the street.  
  
She was sitting on the steps of the Hiwaka Shrine, alone for she had insisted   
the other girls go on up and tell Luna and Artemis what had happened. She had   
her shirt pulled up and was inspecting the side that had been wounded. The   
bleeding had slowed and almost stopped, and when she noticed him standing there  
she immediately dropped her shirt, hiding it from view.   
  
It was too late. He'd already seen it completely. It was a large gash, starting   
at the almost center of her stomach and winding around to her side. It needed   
stitches, lots of stitches, and he knew it.   
  
He opened his mouth to tell her just that but she recognized it and cut him   
off.   
  
"No! Uh-uh! You keep your business and I'll keep mine, since that's the way you  
obviously want it, monsieur. If I want stitches, then I'll go get them. But I   
don't want them, and what's more I don't need them, so you may yell at me and   
then go on your way. Simply because I'm interested to hear a lecture-- from   
you."  
  
He was taken aback by the tone of her voice: not offensive, but rather   
intrigued. Her pose was confident and completely relaxed, as though he were   
nothing, not a threat or cared about. He suddenly knew how one of Ami's   
experiments felt.  
  
"I-- you--" He sputtered, and then got a hold on himself. Was he letting a   
fifteen year old intimidate him? "You were reckless. You displayed power in   
broad daylight on a crowded street in the middle of Tokyo." He stated, clearly   
expecting her to burst into tears under his glare. He was very disappointed   
when she merely leaned forward a little, her eyes shining with mischief.   
  
"No, go on." She urged, when he had paused. "I'm listening."  
  
It only served to increase his anger. "You can't be so childish about this,   
Usagi! You can't go around revealing yourself to innocent people! You don't   
even have control of your power-- what if you'd miscalculated in some way and   
blown something up?" He was furious now, and her smile was only making him more   
and more angry. "Stop taking this so lightly! You could have really screwed up,   
Usagi, and you can't do that! Falling on your face in battle is one thing,   
magic is another!"  
  
At this, he was happy to see her face sobered. But his elation turned to   
startled confusion as a completely different expression settled on her face,   
one of cold fury.   
  
Usagi lost herself for a moment, and a whole other person kicked in.  
  
"I understand you're worried, Chiba Mamoru-san, but to have you insult me as   
though you were my mother is unacceptable. I have never fallen on my face   
unless I meant to! In case you hadn't noticed," Her gray eyes flashed black and   
he shivered, stepping back. "I have never been severely injured, unlike the lot  
of you, and I've always managed to come better from my battles, whereas you   
have lost. Perhaps you will think of THAT before you come and insult my   
abilities again!" She stood and he retreated another step.   
  
He had seen her like this only twice before. Once was a retaliation on Rei for   
a particularly harsh remark about her fighting skills and the other was against   
Nephrite when he had once said she was too weak to kill him and turned his   
back.  
  
And he had died, about five seconds later.   
  
She took a step towards him and as her foot came down she seemed to realize   
that she was threatening Mamoru and froze. For a moment it seemed like she was   
fighting for control of her own body, and won.  
  
"Oh." She said, quietly, as though an epiphany had befallen her. "Oh, of   
course. Of course. I had assumed... Never assume, Usagi... ara, this shall be   
interesting..."  
  
"What will?" He asked, uncertain. Perhaps Rei wasn't joking when she suggested   
that Usagi was schizophrenic.   
  
She looked up at him and smiled an empty smile. "Oh, nothing. Nothing at all.   
I'm sorry I snapped at you, Mamoru-san. But you mustn't assume that I do   
everything because I'm a ditz. I might surprise you someday."  
  
She turned and disappeared up the stairs. Mamoru stared after her.  
  
"You already have, Odango. You already have."  
  
~'~  
  
'I can help you. You can help me.'  
  
*I suppose. You are me. I am you. You should have made yourself known earlier,   
though. You surprised me. I might have done something rash.*  
  
'But you didn't. We have to kill her. It's the only way.'  
  
*To the point, aren't you? And here they've been giving all these opinions of   
you... you're a better actress than I.*  
  
'I can work with you, or work against you. Which will it be?'  
  
*I guess...*  
  
~'~  
  
  
Usagi was uncommonly silent at the senshi meeting. She sat on a cushion at the   
table, and did not make a single move for Rei's manga or sigh dreamily. She   
merely sat there, completely off in her own world. Rei thought that maybe twice  
she saw her blonde friend frown, but that was it. No change in expression from   
that almost dreamy gaze.  
  
She didn't even notice when the subject shifted to her, the other three senshi   
aware of their friend's oblivion.  
  
"She's a bit stranger than usual," Minako commented. "She's always been weird,   
yeah, but these past couple of days... I don't know. She's just someone else.   
But not really."  
  
Makoto's face darkened. "She's fighting different. Better. Like she does when   
she's in danger, only all the time now. I think that if Uranus challenged her   
again it would be a clear win instead of a draw."  
  
"I always thought that the draw was just a concession on Usagi's part. I don't   
think she would willingly hurt another senshi. Uranus left her no choice than   
to fight." Ami stated, sneaking a glance at Usagi.   
  
"What was the deal with that, anyway?" Rei asked. "I know the outer senshi don't  
like us, but trying to kill Sailormoon? It's not like Usagi's much of a threat.  
Such an odango atama!" She shook her head. "It's a wonder she's not dead yet."  
  
Luna, who had been alternately listening to them talk and glowering at a   
sleeping Artemis, decided it was time she spoke up. "Usagi never came home last  
night." She said, in a low tone. "I managed to make her think that Usagi was   
staying with one of you, but it will be difficult to manage it again. I meant   
to scold her for it."  
  
Minako giggled. "I know where Usagi was. She's got a new boyfriend-- oh, wow,   
what a hunk. Tall, dark, mysterious, completely romantic, and should, in fact,   
be picking her up in about five minutes. Oh, Rei, you're going to be so   
jealous. He's the most handsome man I've ever seen..." She sighed. "Tell her,   
Makoto."  
  
Makoto nodded furiously. "Hell yes! The man beats out my old boyfriend! He's   
wonderful!"  
  
"Flattery gets you everywhere. I'm elated to see I'm worthy enough to be the   
topic of your discussion." Kunzite stood in the doorway. He had approached so   
quietly that none of them knew how long he had stood there. Apparently not   
long because he wasn't acting strangely.  
  
In all truth, he hadn't stood there for all of five seconds. Just to observe   
who was in the room, make sure no weapons of destruction were in throwing   
distance, and then to find Usagi. She looked a bit out of it, but otherwise   
okay. She must have stood up to Beryl pretty well or ran like hell.  
  
Since there was a lack of missing body parts, he assumed on the ran like hell.   
But you never knew.  
  
"Usagi-chan, are you and your friends done?"  
  
Usagi started, dazed for a slight second, saw Kunzite, and smiled. "Yeah, I   
guess, Zi-chan. At least, I wasn't paying attention anyway, so it won't make   
much of a different if I leave."  
  
"Yeah, go on, Odango Atama." Rei made a shooing motion with her hands. "You're not needed here, Miss Daydreamer." But she was smiling and didn't mean it.  
  
Luna was nudging Ami frantically. Ami caught the gist. "Usagi!" She called, as the couple turned to go. Usagi looked back over her shoulder, waiting.  
  
"You might want to go home tonight, Usagi." Ami told her quietly. She thought for a moment Usagi looked ready to faint, but if she had it was gone twice as quickly as it had appeared.  
  
"Y-yeah. Sure thing, Ami. I'll go home tonight." She might have wanted to say more but Kunzite leaned down and whispered something into her ear that made her smile and she let him lead her away.  
  
"Bye, Seitosei!"  
  
"Yeah, See you, Seitosei!" Minako and Makoto called after him, still smiling widely. Rei rolled her eyes, yet she could understand the sentiment. He was so very handsome... if they were an anime he'd be the star bishonen....  
  
"Ah, lookee. Rei likes Seitosei too. It's not just us, Mako-chan. Now we just have to get Ami and Luna on board and we'll have him a regular fan club going." Minako's eyes glittered. She stood up, one fist in the hand. "In the name of love, we must worship gods like Seitosei, Yaten, and Motoki. We are the Love Senshi!"  
  
Makoto grinned and got in the spirit. She grabbed Luna and posed beside Minako. "We will adore them forever and carve their images in play-dough!"  
  
Ami giggled, blushing. "You forgot Greg." She mentioned her cute study partner. Minako gasped, mockingly loud, and Makoto grinned, letting out a war cry.  
  
"You go, Ami-chan!"  
  
Artemis woke up, saw the strange scene, rolled his eyes, and went back to sleep. He'd learned the hard way never to involve himself in the affairs of crazy women. He liked his fur white, thank you. Neon pink never did match his eyes very well...  
  
-------------=------  
  
  
Kunzite was chuckling softly as they walked down the steps of the Hiwaka temple. Usagi knew was he thought was amusing and had to agree.   
  
"Yeah, it's funny. But it works for me. They'll trust you if they think you're my boyfriend. That's just how they are. And Usagi thinks it's great, too." She added, absentmindedly.   
  
Kunzite looked at her strangely. "Are you okay, Usagi?" He asked, a little concerned.  
  
Usagi cursed silently to herself when she realized the slip she'd made. She plastered a big smile on her face while she yelled at her. "No, I'm fine. It was just a joke." She giggled. "Wow, Zi-chan, do you think I'm going schitzo on you?"   
  
He shrugged. "With you, my princess, anything that can happen usually does." He smiled in spite of himself. "I've seen proof of that."  
  
She looked at doubtfully. "And exactly what is that supposed to mean, Kunzite? I'll have you know I remember nearly everythi--"  
  
"Jadeite and Rei." He supplied.  
  
Her face went red and she stopped in mid sentence, blushing so furiously she thought she was going to die. Oh, yeah. She remembered that one really well. That happened in this universe too?! Oh, dear....  
  
"I didn't mean for them to start boinking each other in the closet, okay?" She mumbled, wondering if anyone would freak if she melted into the ground.  
  
Kunzite rolled his eyes. "You lock two hated arch nemesis-rivals in a closet together and you don't expect to open the door an hour later without one of them dead or them doing something that small children shouldn't see? Heesh, Usagi. Even I knew that."  
  
She glared up at him. "I didn't hear anyone else coming up with any good ideas to get them together! And it worked!"  
  
Kunzite didn't reply, but he was still grinning. They walked down the rest of the stairs in companionable silence. Usagi smiled happily when she saw the motorcycle. She loved to ride on it with Kunzite. When she got home it was one of the first things she was getting.  
  
She giggled. Neo-Queen Eternia, zooming through Tokyo on her trusty Harley! Youma, beware!  
  
Kunzite helped her on and then climbed on himself, and handed her a helmet. She was lowering it over her head when she had the prickly sensation that someone was staring at her. She turned and found Mamoru, his jaw slack with shock. She winked, and blew him a kiss before securing the helmet and snuggling up against Kunzite.  
  
"Ready, Usagi-sama?" He asked, his voice muffled slightly from his own helmet.  
  
"You bet, Zi-chan." She grinned at the sight of Mamoru's purple face. "Let's go."  
  
With a roar of the engine and a squealing of the tires, Kunzite hauled ass from the curb, as he loved to do. Usagi laughed in almost suicidal glee as they sped away. Kunzite smiled wryly, knowing what was going through her mind the instant he saw the obviously jealous Mamoru.  
  
"Usagi," He called back to her, as they nearly flew down the street, going at speeds most definitely illegal. "one day you're going to piss off the wrong guy."  
  
She only laughed at him. "Been there, Zi-chan. He's dead now." She sounded so matter of fact about it that he laughed as well and didn't doubt it for a second, instead increased his speed and hit the highway.  
  
"Where to, milady?"  
  
"To the stars." 


	4. Behind A Mask

Purging The World in the Blood of an Angel  
Black Beyond  
black_beyond@hotmail.com  
"Behind A Mask"  
~-~  
  
*growls* I can't believe you people. Reading and not reviewing? *shakes her head and walks away*  
  
To the People who have Reviewed: Thank you endlessly.   
  
^.^ I actually do a villian scene. I never do villian scenes.   
  
~-~  
  
  
  
  
Beryl raged, flinging a rare and expensive mirror across the throne room in a gesture of her depthless rage. Her minions scattered to get out of the way and it shattered into a million beautiful shards. Her fury only rose when she saw her youma assembled, each properly trembling, wanting to flee but none daring to go without her permission.  
  
"WHY AM I SUDDENLY UNABLE TO BEST HER?!" She screamed at a very scared Zoisite. "Why is she suddenly doing away with my youma as though they were pie?"  
  
Zoisite composed himself and did his best to look unaffected by Beryl's wrath. "My queen, I believe that Sailormoon has been replaced. Her sudden advancement in skill is impossible, or so the scientists tell me. The rest of the senshi must have finally been fed up with her ditzy antics and found a new leader."  
  
He dodged the heavy golden goblet that she lobbed at his head almost lazily. "You stupid idiot! Don't you know any better? Only the moon's magic can choose a senshi, and once it has chosen she may never be replaced! This is the same Sailormoon you have been besting for seven months!" Beryl picked up a ball of crystal and paused in throwing it. She set it back down and turned to Zoisite, a new glint of ice in her eyes.  
  
Zoisite shivered.  
  
"And that reminds me, Zoisite." He did not like the tone of voice she now spoke in. It was dark and sultry, almost lustful. It had a smile to it even though her face did now, and it was the voice she reserved for her most lethal moments.   
  
"Yes, my queen?" He prompted.  
  
She turned back around to face the tapestry on the wall, tracing the circle of the earth threaded onto the soft surface. "You say you killed Kunzite. Yet there was no release of dark power as there was in the deaths of Jadeite and Nephrite. Are you sure?"  
  
Zoisite did not hesitate in answering. "My queen, I am sure. He was dead before I threw him into the window of the shop. Perhaps there was no release of power because…" He searched for the words. "of Kunzite's unusual circumstances in joining our forces."  
  
Beryl's finger moved up to travel the circumference of the moon palace. "You do have a point, Zoisite. But that does not give you a reprieve of your failures in dealing with the sailor senshi. Do not fail again! I cannot loose youma because of your incompetence! You are dismissed! All of you! Get OUT!"  
  
Zoisite vanished and the rest of Beryl's army fled for life. The last scrawny monster, who lagged a bit because of his lack of legs, was incinerated by a blast of fire from the queen. The doors slammed shut behind them with a boom to knock the socks off a human and she fell into her throne, seething.  
  
"My empress, we have done so well. Why is it only now that we are being beat back by these little girls?" She turned to the mass of shifting red and black ooze held inside the molded capsule.   
  
"Beryl, you fool, I have been watching the battles. This change in Sailor Moon is a danger to you. There are rumors of a soldier made of moon and galaxy that will come and destroy this dark universe and revive the moon kingdom. She will be unstoppable if Sailor Moon turns out to be this fantastical warrior. With her new levels of skill, that is likely."  
  
Beryl's anger dissolved into a glimmer of fear. "There cannot be such a powerful senshi!" She sounded almost desperate. She turned halfway, her eyes closed.  
  
Metalia saw this. "Beryl, you mustn't give up yet. We have almost defeated them! You are so very close. And the possibilities of Sailor Moon being the Universal Senshi are slim. I only said it was possible." She knew that if Beryl were allowed to get hysterical it would be over.  
  
Metalia had a certain amount of control over Beryl. Not a total control, as some of the dark kings secretly thought, but a certain amount. And the stronger Beryl's feeling got, the harder it was to control the woman. Anger was easy enough because in anger Beryl didn't see straight anyway. But if Beryl were allowed to become hysterical or depressed or happy, she might be able to throw away the brainwashing for a moment.  
  
This is what Metalia feared. The youma did not respect her, they did not know her or obey her or even fear her. It was Beryl whom they feared and obeyed. If Beryl could throw off the spell for a moment she could do so for an hour an then a day, and rise the youma against her.  
  
In all actuality, Metalia was not strong. The weakest youma with a good blade could do her away in a second.   
  
The dark queen looked up, her face serene again. "Yes, yes, of course. I forgot. We deal with a simple young girl, not a trained soldier." Her eyes lit up and Metalia fell back, relieved.   
  
"Zoisite!" Beryl yelled. Almost instantly the king appeared, nervous and buttoning up his jacket.   
  
"Yes, my queen?" Zoisite asked hesitantly, really not liking the expression of pure glee imprinted on his queen's face.   
  
Beryl giggled. "I have a wonderful idea, Zoisite. In the past we concentrated only on gathering energy and avoiding these Sailor Senshi, but I want you to start a different approach. I want you to find out something for me, and then I shall explain how we will use it against them…"  
  
Zoisite listened, and laughed as well.  
  
~=~  
  
  
  
Mamoru found his car and yanked open the door and shoved himself inside and slammed the door shut with such a force it should have been taken off its hinges. He put the keys in and started it, all with little angry, jerking motions. The hum of the engine soothed him a little, but not very much. As he let his head fall against the wheel, his eyes squeezed shut and his fists clenched.  
  
"It's not fair." He was disgusted with the childish of the statement.  
  
Reluctantly he pulled out of his parking space at the Arcade. He could still see her smiling at him as her new boyfriend revved away on the motorcycle. He'd never seen her look happier.   
  
He knew the others thought Usagi was a happy girl. She was always smiling and ditzing out, but whenever they were alone or he had been able to wrestle her away from the others it was almost like she had let a little bit of her guard down and he could see sadness and an icy chill in the back of her kind eyes. He knew that there was a completely different person behind her shield.  
  
He was kind of hurt she'd never trusted him enough to share it with him. He'd told her everything about himself, and yet she was silent, with her pain. She knew he knew about it, and still whenever he approached the subject she shut down completely, told him he was being silly, and walked away.  
  
But there were too many slips, though, for him to have been silly. There were moments in battle that he was truly afraid of her, when some dark, bloody glare entered her eyes and she tore into the enemy like a fire through brush and she screamed a banshee scream. But it was only when she battled alone or the others were too busy to notice.  
  
There were other moments, like the poem he'd found hanging out of her bag, or the letters she walked four blocks to mail and never let him see the address or name. There were hours when she disappeared and people that she said were friends that didn't look like her usual crowd.   
  
There was her family, who didn't look like her and was almost wary of her at times. They'd welcomed him when he'd though they would hate him. After all, what parents want their fifteen-year-old daughter to date college students?  
  
Ikuko had laughed and smiled and said, "Anyone's better than that boy who hangs around."  
  
Usagi'd shot her a dirty look. "You've been imagining things, mama."   
  
And that had been the end of it. Kenji had shifted a bit uncomfortably and offered Mamoru more tea. Later, Usagi refused to talk about it.  
  
He couldn't help but feel that there was another layer to his girlfriend. That, combined with those damned visions… how the hell did he really expect her to have waited for him? She'd been very aware that he was suspicious of her.  
  
He pulled into the parking lot of his apartment building with only a slight squealing of tires.  
  
"I'm not going to be jealous. I'm not going to be jealous." He chanted over and over to himself as he slammed his door shut and walked the several flights of stairs to his apartment. Yet the image of her new dark-haired boyfriend holding her and kissing her and god forbid, comforting her was really too much. It made his vision go red and his mind suggest many illegal things to him.  
  
Yes, transforming to Tuxedo Kamen and placing a few well-aimed roses exactly where whatshisface didn't want them was a very alluring idea. But Mamoru's legendary self-control took over and he slammed the window shut on that idea.  
  
As he did, a door opened in his mind, a part of him that he had not known was there, a dark, low-life, sneaky and evil part of him that had lain dormant. It whispered a plan into his ear that was neither dishonorable nor bad, but very worthwhile and seemed quite foolproof to his slightly irrational mind.   
  
"Yeah. I could follow her." He nodded, a system of approach formulating in his mind. "I could find out her secrets. Then maybe I could get her back."  
  
It was very logical to him. He had great disguise skills as Tuxedo Kamen, and could blend into any wall and hide in any shadow and could sneak up on the most watchful creature. Yes, he could follow Usagi, if only for one night, to find out where she went and who she met. He could discover the secrets she had been keeping for so long, her secrets, the ones she had always had.  
  
He looked outside at the darkening sky and transformed into his alter ego without a second thought. He stashed his hat, which would be nothing but a nuisance, and leapt from his balcony and began to travel the rooftops in the direction of Usagi's house.   
  
The old woman that had the apartment above Mamoru's watched the caped man go and smiled to herself. She gathered her fluffy orange cat into her arms and moved the little paw in a waving gesture.  
  
"There he goes again, Pen. Let's hope he comes back again. It wouldn't be the same without him romantically rushing into the sunset every night."  
  
Pen meowed, and stretched over to lap at his saucer of tea. She laughed at him and sipped from her own cup, content with her own secret.  
  
~'~  
  
  
  
"Thanks for dropping me off, Zi-chan. Go straight to the house. I feel something off about the energy. Zoisite's up to something tonight." Usagi gave Kunzite her warning with a quick kiss on the cheek.   
  
He fastened her helmet back onto the motorcycle and smiled. "I will, Usagi-sama. I felt it too. I won't take any chances yet. I'm up to magic of my own."  
  
She nodded, signifying that she knew. "Watch out for Haruka. She's quite liable to drop by any time just to make sure you're not up to anything naughty, so just in case you are keep it to the basement. Supposedly it's well stocked." She giggled a little. "I like this Setsuna. She's more fun then mine."   
  
Kunzite shook his head. He'd never though a girl could be so mischievous.   
  
"I'd better go. Your father doesn't seem to like me." Kunzite looked up at the house and Kenji, who stared angrily out of the window at him.   
  
Usagi glanced at him briefly. "He probably just wants to congratulate you. That last boy he saw me with was covered in blood and grinning like an ass. You're Prince Charming in comparison."   
  
Kunzite raised an eye at her. "That was you, huh?"  
  
Usagi shrugged. "Not me. Her. But yeah. Little old Usagi."  
  
Kunzite started up the bike again, and the sound of the engine cut through the night. He posed his helmet to slip over his head, but hesitated. He looked at Usagi, right in her eyes for the first time.   
  
"I think that even if you hadn't had come, the senshi still would have won. We all underestimated Sailormoon, perhaps Beryl the most. I had no idea it was you…"  
  
Usagi shushed him with a wink. "No one did. That was the idea. Now go on, before it's truly dark. I need to go inside and get ready. We're pulling another one tonight."  
  
"I'd help, but you won't let me." He pulled the helmet down tightly and revved off.  
  
Usagi sighed. "Some men never grow up."   
  
'Isn't that the truth.'  
  
She walked up the steps and opened the door. Kenji was sitting down now, looking unusually peaceful. Ikuko was humming over something in the kitchen. Shingo must be upstairs.  
  
Usagi closed the door and leaned up against it, happier than she'd been in the longest time. She was in a world where her parents had never died because of her foolishness. Her little brother had never been murdered in his bed because she had been silly enough to have believed if she hid Beryl wouldn't know.  
  
'Wake up, darling. I'm thrilled too, but you'd better get something to eat and tell Mama we've got duty tonight. Kiss papa goodbye. Now that we've got your endurance tonight will be easier and tomorrow not as bad.'  
  
She sighed. "Yeah. Just because I'm in control doesn't mean you get to slack, huh." She slid off her shoes and danced into the kitchen and gave her mother a big hug. Ikuko frowned, but hugged her back.  
  
"You've got to go again, don't you?" She fretted. "Oh, Usagi, why can't you just take the other senshi with you? I don't understand why you have to take that boy and that child with you instead of the senshi!"  
  
Usagi shook her head with a sad smile. "Mama, let's not argue. Got anything to eat? I'm starved!"  
  
Ikuko tried to smile but they both knew she didn't mean it. "Yeah. I kept it warm for you. I heard about the battle from Luna. You should really tell that neko that if she doesn't want us to find out about her talking she shouldn't mutter to herself. People aren't deaf."  
  
Usagi giggled. "Yeah. But she does anyway." She woofed down the food, delighted at the newfound strength she had now that her tummy was full. "I should be back early. I picked up a new power today."  
  
Ikuko smiled. "That's good. I'll keep the light on for you. And by the way, who was that handsome young man who dropped you off?" She grinned and elbowed her daughter. "A new boyfriend?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. "A very good ally I made today. He's the reason I'm going to be early. I've got to head out soon."  
  
She went in to see her father. She was only slightly perturbed at the fact the last time she saw her father he was tied and gagged to a chair while she interrogated him. He smiled as she gave him a hug, but frowned when he saw the solemn stare on her face.  
  
"You've got to go out tonight, don't you? Do you want me to use the 'Gone to see Aunt Keiko' or 'Staying at Naru's' conversation with Luna and your friends?"  
  
Usagi shrugged. "Surprise me." She glanced up at the clock and bit down a curse. "I've got to go now, daddy. I love you."  
  
"I love you too, pumpkin. Be careful."  
  
She grinned. "I will be. Don't worry. I should be home before dawn. Don't sit up tonight, okay? You need to sleep."   
  
He raised his left eyebrow. "Alright, mother. Bye."  
  
She was still grinning when she shut the door behind her.  
  
'That must have been weird for you.'  
  
-Yeah, no kidding. But I don't mind.- She came to the end of the street. –This is where he usually meets you?-  
  
'Uh-huh. He'll know something's up with us but we won't say or do anything unless you defect to the dark side and try to kill them. You can't act like me but don't do anything really stupid.'  
  
-Easy for you to say. Do you have any idea how insane it is to have a little voice talking to you in your own head?-  
  
'Uh-- oh, look! There's Genso now. And glory be, he's got Sasa with him. Stop talking to me and fake it.'  
  
Usagi growled at the voice slightly, but hid the snarl fast and quickened her step to meet the pair. Her eyebrows lifted. The voice had given her a quick description and a fuzzy mental image, but she had not been led to expect a boy perhaps a year older than she herself and a mere little girl!  
  
She bit her lip and got over her indignation quick and looked at them again, this time through true eyes.  
  
-What the bloody hell is THIS?!- She shrieked to the voice. -She's a Solarian! Why the BLOODY GODDAMNED HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL ME I WAS GOING TO BE DEALING WITH A SOLARIAN HALF BREED CHILD?!- She felt the voice wince but she didn't really care.   
  
'Because I didn't know?'   
  
She glowered. -Just shut up. You didn't know... oh... I think I'm going to kill you...-   
  
"Usagi-san? Are you ready to go?" Genso was eyeing her suspiciously. She gave him a long glance. He was human, mostly, anyway, and his hand was protectively on the shoulder of the girl, who in all reality appeared to be about eight years old.  
  
Genso wasn't very tall, about her height, perhaps. His hair was long and pulled back into a wavy ponytail of obsidian silk. His eyes were distinctly Asian, dark and slanted inside a pretty pale face. He wore black. At a closer look she had to bite down a giggle. He wore a ninja costume! A sheath was slung across his back and his mask was pulled down.  
  
The little girl was more interesting. She wore a dark blue sailor dress, and stared up at Usagi adoringly. Usagi calculated the age in her eyes and was kind of surprised to find the girl was probably her age.  
  
"See, Usagi-san? I'm a sailor senshi, too." Sasa laughed. "Now you can't call me Shrimp anymore."  
  
"Oh, it won't stop me!" She smiled and tousled Sasa's short blonde hair that clashed nicely with the girl's gray-violet eyes. Her look grew solemn. "Genso, I made friends with someone inside the dark kingdom. Don't give me that look, he won't betray me again. I know he won't. There's another way inside that will place us right outside the largest youma barrack. They'll all be asleep right now, so if we get inside we can deal Beryl a blow she'll still be bleeding from when I kill her."  
  
Genso still looked concerned, but nodded. "Alright. I trust you, Usagi. I know you can take care of yourself. You're not going to tell me who, are you? Don't worry, if you told me I'd flip, wouldn't I? Let's go. You lead the way and I'll carry Sasa."  
  
Usagi brought out her staff from her subspace pocket. "It's really not far from here. I just hope I can hope it. It's going to take dark magic and I'm not very experienced in that." She waited until Sasa was securely in Genso's arms and then took off at a run. He matched it easily, so they ran together, down the streets, neither of them noticing the dark shadow that panted to keep up on the roofs.  
  
"It's here." Usagi came to an abrupt halt in front of a coffee shop in downtown Juuban. "Around back." Her staff began to glow with a dark light as she fed her power into it. "The entrance is right here." She stopped a few feet from the back door. "Cross your fingers." She whispered, and closed her eyes.  
  
Genso stepped back, a bell in his head going overtime as the usually kind and sweet Usagi began to chant in a harsh, guttural language that sounded as though every syllable were a curse word. Her lips snarled around each word and the staff gave off a black light, spiraling around her hand.  
  
She finished the chant, and the dark light fled from her hand and staff to form a large portal leading into total darkness.  
  
"Are you okay?" Sasa asked, when Usagi stumbled and almost fell. Her eyes opened and she managed a weak smile.  
  
"Sure I am, kiddo. Dark magic just packs a momentary whomp, especially for someone like me." Something inside her hinted a warning. She spun around but found nothing but darkness and shadow.  
  
"What is it?" Genso was guarded.  
  
She shook her head. "I... I thought I heard something. Nevermind. Let's go in and get this done. I've got a new trick I want to show you." She ignored the bagging in the back of her head that whispered something was wrong.  
  
'We're being followed. I don't know who but we are definitely being followed.' The voice muttered. Sasa approached the portal and was about to jump in, but a sound from Usagi stopped her. She whirled just to see Usagi spin around, a short blade of energy appearing in her hand. The blonde warrior threw I as hard as she could into the shadows behind them.  
  
"ARHHHGGGGH!" A male voice, shrill with pain, shouted. Usagi laughed and leapt into the shadows but appeared a few minutes later, her victorious smile dampened slightly. "I lost him-- he ran. Oh, well. We shan't let that put us down, now shall we? Come on, Genso. Ladies first."  
  
"Oh, alright--- HEY!" 


	5. Death Before Trial

Purging The World in the Blood of an Angel  
Black Beyond  
  
~---~  
  
*giggles* Okay, you can lynch me! But I made it extra long this time.  
  
I'll switch this over to crossover land when I hit the part where I cross  
over, okay? It may not be for a couple of chapters.  
  
~---~  
  
  
  
The next morning, Kunzite appeared on his motorcycle in front of the Tsukino House, holding a bouquet of tulips for Ikuko. He hung his helmet on the handlebar and knocked on the door. To his expectations, the blue haired woman answered the door with a smile and he presented the pretty red flowers with a flourish.  
  
"It's quite obvious where Usagi has come by her beauty. Is she awake yet?"  
  
Ikuko giggled delightedly and accepted the gift. "Come in, Seitosei-kun. Usagi will be down in a couple of minutes. I've heard a lot about you! Here, let me find a vase... Kenji, look who's come to pick Usagi up for school."  
  
Kenji looked up from his newspaper and coffee with an evaluating glare. Kunzite had decided that morning to use a bit of magic to make himself appear younger, maybe just old enough for a license. He was wearing dark clothing again, with his leather trench coat over all.  
  
"Hmm. What's your family name again?"  
  
"Dadddddddy!" Usagi came bouncing down the stairs. "Stop interrogating! That's mean. You'll scare him off." She hugged her father.   
  
Kunzite grinned. "Never, Usagi-sama. Are you ready to go?"  
  
She nodded. "Bye, Daddy. I'll be in late, tonight, probably." She said it meaningfully, and Kunzite was taken aback for the slightest second at the realization that her parents knew who she was-- he saw it in the worried glance they exchanged as Usagi took his arm and dragged him out the door.  
  
He gave her a strange look but offered her a helmet. She tugged it on impatiently and hopped on. He climbed on, fastening his helmet before taking off with a quieter screech of tires than usual.   
  
"Before you ask," Usagi shouted. "yeah, they do know about me being Sailormoon and going out on those raids. They've known that since about two months after I started being Sailormoon. Daddy caught me coming in and I had to explain who I was. I'm starting to get a grip on who I was in this world. I wasn't just Sailormoon, Zi-chan."  
  
Kunzite nodded. "Her Bitchiness would die if she knew that the incompetent Sailormoon was also the little terrorist that have been depleting her ranks in the night." He laughed. "We all underestimated your other self."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yup. Of course, I am a delicate little Lunarian maiden. Anyone would." She laughed loudly as Kunzite came to a screeching stop in front of the gates of Juuban High. "Imagine me, holding a gun to your head. You'd laugh, too, wouldn't you?"  
  
Kunzite helped her off. "Yeah, I would have. But no more, my lovely moon princess." He bowed and touched his lips to the top of her hand. Sighs were heard from the schoolyard, and Kunzite winked rather mischievously at her. Usagi was dismayed to feel a blush spread over her cheeks. She shook her finger at him.  
  
"None of that, sir. I *am* betrothed, you know." She giggled and kissed his cheek. "Pick me up?" She pleaded, shooting him her best 'just look at me, I'm so pretty and helpless' look. He grinned.   
  
"Always, Usagi-sama. Now you'd better scram. The bell's going to ring and your fan club is waiting."  
  
Usagi took a playful swing and him, slow enough for him to dodge. He chuckled and took to his bike before she could connect a swing. Usagi watched him go, and the moment he was out of sight, Makoto, Minako, and Ami pounced on her with starry eyes and dreamy smiles.   
  
"Oh, Usagi-chan, you're so lucky! He's so romantic! You saw him kiss her hand, didn't you? Didn't you?" Makoto prodded Minako, who grinned.  
  
"And the way he bows and helps you off the motorcycle and calls you Usagi-sama-- dahling, if you ever tire of him, I'll take him!" Usagi tried not to giggle at the envious look in Minako's eyes. How ironic!  
  
Ami leaned forward, bright red. "I'll fight you for him, Minako-chan."  
  
Makoto fell over at the comment from AMI, of all people, when the bell rang.   
  
"Arghhh! We're gonna be late!" Minako grabbed Usagi's wrist and dragged her along as fast as the golden child could run. She looked back at Usagi's shrieking face when thud! she ran straight into a brick wall. Oh, wait. No, that was a human. Sorry about the confusion...  
  
-_-;;;  
  
Usagi caught herself, just barely, but Minako, who was the one unfortunate enough to run into the human tank, flew back and landed on her tush, hard. Usagi sent a glance to Minako and made sure she was okay, but was distracted by the sick feeling in her stomach that almost made her go green. She looked up at the tall man, and her face fell as the pinkish flesh twisted into the scowling red and green smile of a youma.   
  
"I've been waiting for you, Tsukino Usagi." She really, really didn't like the feel of that smirk. "You'll be pleased to know that I followed you last night. Her Majesty will be very pleased to know that I have found out the identity of our little terrorist. I will be rewarded greatly once I bring her your dead, ravaged body."  
  
Minako's eyes clouded over with confusion and anger. Makoto and Ami slipped away to henshin, but Usagi scowled.  
  
"Youma, I killed three hundred of your companions last night without breaking a sweat. Do you think you will be much of a challenge to me? Get real!"  
  
Someone from the second story happened to look out the window. With a scream of, "A monster is attacking students!", pandemonium broke out as everyone crowded the windows.  
  
Usagi cursed. There went transforming.   
  
The youma scoffed. "But I am different. I have the strength of twenty humans in just one of my hands! You have met your downfall! You won't sneak into our kingdom to murder us in our sleep anymore!"  
  
Minako looked at Usagi. "You've been WHAT?!" She shouted. Unfortunately, this drew the youma's attention back to her. With a growl of YOU FIRST!, the youma picked her up and tossed her into one of the large trees. Usagi's eyes flashed silver as the crack of bones snapping entered the air. Before she knew it, her sword was in her hand and glowing orange and purple fire.   
  
"You'll not attack my friends in my presence, filthy beast!" She wasn't surprised when the youma made a sword of it's own and parried her blow. She lit up her aura enough to blind it from following her shape too closely and began a series of rapid-fire slashes, every other one getting through to make a scream of pain and outrage filled the air. Students screamed and clapped as their ditzy classmate battled the youma.  
  
"Shabon Spray Freezing! Out of the way, Usagi-chan!"  
  
"Supreme Thunder Dragon!" The two senshi leapt out from behind a corner of the school, and circled to release their attacks. Mercury's breath caught as Usagi actually executed and perfect double flip, up over the arch of the lightning. She seemed to hover in midair and when the beast was probably burnt and encased in ice, she fell back down at a dizzying speed to thrust the tip of her blade into the heart of the youma.  
  
It disintegrated into a fine powder.  
  
"Usagi-- behind--" Minako's weak yell was too late. Usagi was already turned around. She yelled and tackled the youma who had hidden and had tried to sneak up behind her, pinning it to the rough wall with the intense fire of her weapon burning into its neck.  
  
"You listen-- don't scream, you listen to me! You tell your queen that I PROTECT the one she fears so much. You tell her that if she EVER tries to attack me or my family, I will come after her and I will make her suffer in ways you have never even dreamed of! If you think the bit of muscle it takes to destroy your dirty barracks is something, you piss me off and I swear to the gods I'll blow up her universe and everything in it! Do you UNDERSTAND ME?" She was screaming in the youma's face as it trembled. "I have killed three of her generals, and the last will die soon enough. And you will not deliver this message to Beryl. You must insist of speaking it to Metalia only! BERYL WILL NOT HEAR THIS!"  
  
"Yes... yes... I will do this... do not kill me..." It whimpered. Usagi harshly opened a portal and shoved the youma into it. The fire of the sword died away and she glanced at it. Taking a handful of her skirt, she wiped the bluish green blood from the blade and let it vanish into her subspace pocket.  
  
At that moment, Kunzite pulled to a stop in front of the school, leaping off his bike and was at Usagi's side in a moment, noting the bruises and scratches. "I felt the trouble. Are you okay?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "I'll be fine. Minako won't. I need you to take her to the hospital. You know where it is? Good. Minako-chan..." She knelt by the side of her friend. "Zi-chan is going to take you to the hospital. Yes, you need to go. Your arm is broken. Here. Be gentle." Mercury's jaw made a clonk sound hitting the ground as Usagi picked Minako up like a baby and let Seitosei take her.  
  
"You owe me an explanation, Usagi-chan. They didn't hear, but I did." Minako joked, before passing out from the pain.  
  
"Take the shortcut as soon as you're out of sight." Usagi whispered. Kunzite nodded, and gingerly climbed on his bike. He was gone just as quickly as he came.  
  
Usagi turned to two very pissed senshi.  
  
"You-- Usagi-- WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!" Jupiter yelled. At the sound of her anger, windows slammed shut. Kino Makoto was intimidating-- Sailor Jupiter was downright SCARY.   
  
Usagi sighed. "Well, since I'd like to get to class, I'll tell you the short version. I have been hiding things from you. Before I was a senshi, I secretly led a strange trio of fighters to raid Beryl's ranks. We have killed lots of youma and there's a bounty on my head. Of course, that's completely okay. Now, I want to go to class and turn in my homework so I can go check on Minako."  
  
Mercury shook her head and laid a hand on Jupiter shoulder as Usagi scooped up her bag and marched inside the school. "Usagi-chan has always been an enigma to all of us. Just don't. We can call a senshi meeting, without her, and Minako, because she'll be in the hospital. Perhaps Luna or Artemis will know something, and Rei should be home today."  
  
Jupiter was already pushing buttons on her communicator as Mercury led her down the streets at a pace almost too fast for any human. In between breaths and dodging innocent bystanders, she told Rei and Mamoru what had happened, unaware Uranus and Neptune were listening avidly. She told them to find Artemis and they'd get Luna, and to meet at the temple in a few minutes.  
  
Mamoru looked agitated and was holding a needle and surgical thread, and agreed all too quickly to a meeting without Usagi.   
  
It took the duo a moment to find Luna, who was stalking squirrels in the park-- just practicing her skills, of course-- and another few minutes to make it to the temple, where they met Tuxedo Kamen with a small bundle of white fur on his shoulder.  
  
The three of them dehenshined at once, and Luna and Artemis leapt down.  
  
"What exactly is going on? Where are Usagi and Minako? Aren't you three supposed to be in school? My GOD, Mamoru, what have you done with yourself?!" Luna forgot the rest. Mamoru was wearing a jacket and jeans, the same things he'd been wearing when he henshined. A long, fresh wound traveled from the center of his chest up over his right shoulder and disappeared beneath the lapel of his ugly green jacket. He had just been putting the last stitch in when Jupiter had called.  
  
"I'll tell you when we get up there." He zipped up the jacket, dark anger in the back of his blue eyes.   
  
"Ditto." Ami nodded. "Come on, Rei's waiting. I'm glad she was out this week." They walked up the stairs in silence, the two cats racing ahead to inform Rei of their arrival.   
  
The priestess met them at the top of the stairs, a frown on her face. "Come on inside. Mamoru-san, what did you do to your-- nevermind. You'll tell me in a minute. I've got tea ready."  
  
After a short while of sipping and mumbling, Rei sat her cup down. "Okay, this is what I got. Minako and Usagi crashed into a youma in the schoolyard. You two go off to henshin. When you get back, Usagi is kicking the youma's ass with a freaky sword. You shoot off your attacks, she kills the youma. And then she flies at the one sneaking up behind her, threatens it, lets it go back to Beryl, tells you she's been a terrorist against Beryl since before she was a senshi, and goes inside to turn in her HOMEWORK before going to check on Minako, who was thrown into a tree by said youma and injured and then entrusted into the care of Usagi's hunky boyfriend."  
  
"WHAT?!!" Luna shrieked, but hung her head. "I always knew the girl was hiding something." She sighed. "With her the leader of the senshi.... she should have TOLD us..."  
  
Mamoru reluctantly stopped scowling. "I followed her last night. She met up with this little girl and a boy about her age. I couldn't stay close enough to hear what they were saying. and when I did manage, she somehow knew I was there and threw something-- sharp and glowing-- at me." He unzipped the jacket part way to show off his wound. "But before she did, I managed to get that she's been working with someone from the Dark Kingdom. He's the one who showed her a new way into it."  
  
Artemis nodded, a serious look that was very kawaii on his little cat face. "This could be serious. It is enough that our leader has been going behind our backs for two years. But attacking one of our own-- even if she didn't know-- is a serious crime. She's probably the only one in the universe who could get away with it, as our princess."  
  
Luna shook her head. "I've known her longer. When I found her, I could tell she was faking her clumsiness for me, but I stopped noticing it. She got perfect at hiding it right about the time we found you, Ami."  
  
Rei closed her eyes. "And I have never been able to sense her emotions. I can tell all of your emotions right now: betrayal, confusion, anger, hurt, et cetera, but never hers. That's why I'm usually so snappish with her. It's unnerving to go your entire life seeing other people's moods and finding one person who has this weird impermeable dome around them."  
  
Makoto shrugged. "I'm... just a little hurt, I guess. I thought Usagi-chan trusted us. But when she fought today..." A little shiver went up her spine. "I was scared. She was like nothing else I'd seen before. And when she pinned that youma... I know what Zoisite must have been feeling. It was just creepy. I thought Uranus was frightening, that one time?... but... wow...."  
  
Mamoru's face darkened. "I don't like it. She's making deals with Dark kingdom trash, has a new boyfriend who's always in the right place at the right time, and she has suddenly acquired fighting skills so good that she can beat Uranus with one swipe of her staff. I really, honestly don't like it. At all."  
  
"That's beautiful, really, it is. Should I be crying?"  
  
"Usagi!" Ami jumped about three feet in the air as Usagi walked into the room, Kunzite's black leather trench coat over her shoulders and her hair down from her odango in cascading waves of gold and silver. Like some sort of angel from hell.  
  
"Yup. I checked on Minako, who will be out soon. Her broken arm was mysteriously not broken." Was that annoyance or mischievousness in her eyes? "So I decide to follow Jupiter and Mercury here, where you are having a conversation about me. Hehe, I thought it was you in the shadows!" Usagi's voice held a little too much glee as she looked at Mamoru. "The ONLY reason I didn't go for your face. I can heal the wound if you want."  
  
He glared at her. "I wouldn't need healing if you hadn't had attacked me. What if I'd been a kid or something?" He demanded.  
  
She shrugged. "Then that kid would never spy on me again. Genso was not pleased and Sasa was scared. I ought to kick you just for that. Scaring a half-baby..." Anger flashed across her face. "And spying on me! It's hard to be a traitor when you're the daughter of Etern! I could defect to the Dark Kingdom and you'd still have a hard time proving your case to the Ary Council."  
  
"How do you know about those people?" Luna jumped up on the table. "I never told you about Etern!"  
  
Artemis was staring at Usagi, and she looked at him sharply as he gasped. "One word, my truth-reading kitty, and you'll be considerably froggier."  
  
Luna was positively pissed. "And just who do you know from the Dark Kingdom? That is very serous, Usagi Tsukino."  
  
"Luna, my darling, if you had cared to inform us that the dark kings were once our allies, perhaps I wouldn't have gone behind your back about it!" Rei looked at Usagi funny. "And I'll have you know that whatever she did, it was justified! She's more sense in her hand than all of you have combined!" She checked herself. "Sorry." She muttered.  
  
"I'm ignoring the sudden multiple personality disorder." Ami was starting to get angry herself. "Usagi-chan, you can trust us! We would never think less of you!"  
  
'They would, too.'  
  
*I don't know. I know that my senshi would stand behind me no matter what. But I am not so sure of these. Your life, your call.*  
  
'Your life, too, if you hadn't noticed. I don't care. But I wish you'd aimed better when you went for Mamoru.'  
  
*And KILL the crown prince of Earth? I'm Eternia, not suicidal! I won't tell them about Zi-chan. Or Genso. Or much of anything.*  
  
'Grr...'  
  
"Well?" Rei could feel a strange buzzing in the back of her head when Usagi got that look of concentration on her face.   
  
Usagi sighed. "Yes, I've been secretly attacking the Dark Kingdom and hiding skills. Why shouldn't I? it means that I am underestimated, the greatest advantage ever given. How do you think we managed to off Jadeite and Nephrite so easily? Because at last moment Sailormoon got gung-ho and scared the shit out of them."  
  
For once, everyone was silent. Even Mamoru had nothing to say.  
  
"I might have been purposefully clumsy. It never got anyone hurt, and it usually helped, in fact, distract the youma so you guys could wear it down. I've always pulled through. And just in case any of you hadn't noticed, this is a war. If I'm talking to Beryl's traitors, then that's all the more to help us." She looked directly at Artemis.  
  
The white cat flushed, but nodded. "You're absolutely right, Usagi. In the Silver Millennium we had several double agents." He paused, almost as though he expected her to stop him. "You among them, Princess."  
  
Ami pulled out her palmtop and was busy hacking her own database. Makoto was numbly silent, trying to remember. Rei sighed.   
  
"Maybe that's why I'm not surprised." She managed a small smile. "I trust you, Usagi. I know you're not telling us everything, but I trust you."  
  
"It's fine that you do." Mamoru was absolutely furious.   
  
Usagi turned to glare at him. "You have no right to be jealous of Seitosei. You're the one who broke this off, if you'd care to remember. Why don't you get a dog or something instead of stalking me? Has anyone ever told you no without you going all psychosomatic on them?"  
  
"Low blow..." Makoto whispered to Ami, who didn't hear her. She was occupied in reading the small screen, her blue eyes growing wider and wider. Makoto turned for Mamoru's rebuttal, sighing.  
  
Makoto was shocked. She had never, ever seen the man so furious as he was now. She realized that the stresses of his normal life, plus the extra from being his alter ego, along with Usagi and her escapades must be hitting about his 'enough!!!' point. He looked positively terrifying as he stood as to not have to look up at Usagi. For a second, he towered over her, but Usagi pushed out her chest in defiance and suddenly it was she who was taller, but this didn't daunt Mamoru.  
  
"Just because you're the moon princess and the leader of the senshi you think you're hot shit. Well, let me tell you, Usagi, you're far from it. You're just a little girl who thinks because she's got some power she can bully her way around and live a charmed life. You're going to get hurt one day and you're going to die, and who's going to lead then, hmm?"  
  
Usagi had the audacity to giggle, and Mamoru's purple face darkened another shade. Shaking her head, she drew out the sword that Makoto and Ami had spoke of earlier. Artemis took one look at it and his gasp made Luna look at it harder. She shrieked and fainted.  
  
"Do you know what this is?" She thrust it to his face level so he could see it better. Even without the aura of fire accompanying it, it was so obviously not an ordinary weapon.   
  
Ami's eyes went from her computer screen to the sword, and back again, twice. Her eyes could not possibly get any wider.  
  
"No." Mamoru felt his blood pressure drop a little. For some reason the sword had a calming presence on him, and it was so beautiful. The engravings on the hilt were runes of a language he did not recognize, but he knew the words were comforting ones-- to him, anyway. Those same runes had been used to strike fear into the hearts of--  
  
Ami shut her computer and closed her eyes and began to speak in a soft, twisting language that should have tongue tied her many times over. It was a pretty, almost lyrical speech that she recited, and Mamoru knew she was speaking what the runes spelled. Usagi turned, and nodded.  
  
"Perfect. You need to work on the 'lls', though. You never told me you could speak Lunarian."  
  
"What did she say?" Makoto asked, confusing. The speech had sent chills down her spine and raised gooseflesh on her arms, but she had no idea what it meant.  
  
"I am the one that legend has spoke of. If you do evil, or cause harm to what I protect, fear me, for your end is near. I am the one of blind justice, the one of flawed beauty. See my hands weld this, for none other may. Eternal is my love, and my love shall be your end." Usagi grinned. "That's the closest you get to a translation.... Lunarian is one of those languages that can never be translated properly."  
  
Artemis was awestruck. It didn't take an idiot to see that. He opened his mouth, but Ami beat him to it.  
  
"That's IMPOSSIBLE! In order to weld that thing you'd have to be Etern himself! Only his pure blood could withstand the weight and power of that thing! And you're so many generations down that even if your great-grandmother touched that thing she'd die! It's IMPOSSIBLE!"  
  
"No, it's not." Luna and Usagi spoke at the same time. Usagi continued. "I told you I went through a costume change? It was a little more than that. *I* am the daughter of Etern. And the prize came complete with blood work and every power I had or have had." She smiled triumphantly and pointed the sword at Mamoru. "So I AM hot shit, Tux."  
  
There was a knock at the door. Rei started. For a moment she had been back in a marble palace, listening to Princess Serenity argue with the Queen about the disadvantages of keeping her identity as the moon warrior secret when there was a full-scale war going on...  
  
She got up, waited until Usagi put the sword up, and slid open the door. She frowned to find Kunzite standing there.   
  
"Usagi, it's your booooyfriend." She shook her head, trying to clear the uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu she felt around the tall man.   
  
"Usagi-sama said she would only be a moment. I came to see if anything was wrong. We're going to be late."  
  
Usagi blinked, and then nodded. "You're right. We are late. I only meant to tell them about Minako, but I got caught up in something. Come on." She took his arm, and turned to smile at the senshi. "Those two people that aren't really here can tell you everything they know." She laughed and led Kunzite out of the temple.  
  
Rei stared after them. The way Kunzite had offered his arm and his elegant smile were so eerily familiar... especially the way he stared at Usagi... that intensity in silver eyes... she'd seen it before....  
  
It wa son the tip of her tongue, but then a blankness came. She cursed as she recognized the same magic that kept her from Usagi's business and was now keeping her from remembering who her leader's companion was. She cursed again, this time so violently Luna gasped and even Makoto turned pink. Mamoru stared, and was about to ask where Rei had learned such a painful expression, but he never got the chance. The priestess spun on her heel and used every trick to make herself appear twenty feet tall and scarier than Beryl had ever been.  
  
"THAT MAN IS NOT HUMAN!" She said in her most severe voice.  
  
That was all it took for Mamoru. He felt something akin to elation at the statement and was Tuxedo Kamen before anyone could even blink. He had an excuse to kill the evil monster! Yay!  
  
Makoto became Jupiter quickly, to follow him. Ami sighed and did the same.  
  
They didn't have to go far. Tuxedo Kamen had frozen at the top of the steps, staring down. Jupiter and Mercury, and then Mars, walked up to stand beside him, curious to see what had made the hero pause.  
  
They saw. Usagi and Kunzite stood on the sidewalk, and Usagi was speaking animatedly to Sailor Uranus and Neptune. Uranus had her sword slung over her shoulder and was nodding seriously, while Neptune was speaking to Kunzite in a lower tone of voice.  
  
"There really isn't a lot of time." They could just barely make out Usagi's words. "I can feel that they almost have enough energy to release Metalia. If that happens, I can't even begin to think of what she could do before we managed to subdue her, let alone kill her!"  
  
"I do understand. With Kunzite's information, can't we just barge right in and get this over with?" Uranus retorted. "You're the one protecting him. Hell, bring him along! I want to see the look on Beryl's face..."  
  
Kunzite waved his arms wildly and hissed something at the both of them. Uranus's eyes shot up to the three senshi and Tuxedo Kamen and she immediately grabbed Neptune's arm and ran out of sight. Jupiter cursed loudly and bounded down the steps to follow, but the absolute fury in Usagi's eyes stopped her.  
  
"You listen NOW!" Her voice was deeper, and commanding. "I may now know all of you as I did my own senshi--" Kunzite shook his head slightly, and Usagi sighed. "Nevermind. I have more important things to be doing." She let Kunzite steer her hand, one large hand on her slim shoulder.   
  
"Usagi, he's not human! Stop!" Sailor Mars took the stairs in three bounds to land beside her friend. She glared at Kunzite.   
  
Usagi shrugged. "Neither am I. Neither are you. He's my friend. I can trust him." The unspoken jibe hit Mars, but did not make her back down.  
  
"Usagi, you're putting yourself in danger, don't you see?" Mars pleaded, turning her friend around to face her. She drew back as Usagi's aura flared up, an invisible wave of power only she and Kunzite could fell. Her gasp was very, very audible.  
  
"You...."  
  
Usagi put her finger to her lips. "They can't know yet, Rei. Because in a little while I'm going to have to go home. There is no one in my home to protect it."  
  
Mars blinked, and looked at Kunzite. This time, his true identity was very clear to her, and she looked back to her friend. "I don't understand how you came to be in Usagi's body. But I won't tell the others." She stepped back and dehenshined, to the other senshi's shock.   
  
"Thank you, Rei-chan." Usagi smiled. "Actually..." She looked thoughtful, but frowned. "Never mind. Come on, Z-chan. They'll be waiting for us."  
  
"Artemis, wait." Rei said, as Usagi and Kunzite turned to go.   
  
Usagi turned. "That's not my name."  
  
Rei paused, confused. "It's not?"  
  
Usagi shook her head, her face solemn. "The gods are my children. I am Eternia." She climbed on the back of Kunzite's bike, and he started it, the growl of the engine keeping Rei from exclaiming her shock.   
  
With a swish of leather, they were gone.   
  
Rei was left to pick her jaw off of the pavement, which she did just as the senshi made it down the stairs to stand beside her, looking after Kunzite and Usagi angrily.  
  
"Why'd you let them go?" Jupiter demanded. "And why did you dehenshin in front of that man? He could be the enemy."  
  
For a moment, Rei was unusually silent.   
  
"He's not the enemy." Mercury said, unnerved by Rei's quiet and the way the miko was looking after the motorcycle. "I scanned him while we were up there. There's hardly any negative energy in him, which is actually quite strange. Of course, my computer could be malfunctioning. It wouldn't scan Usagi at all. It just kept saying that I needed to get subject's permission..."  
  
She trailed away as Venus laid a tentative hand on Rei's shoulder. "Rei-chan? Are you okay?"  
  
"Rei?" Tuxedo Kamen asked, when the girl didn't answer.  
  
Rei sighed. "I... I'm fine. Don't worry about me. Don't worry about Usagi, either. She... She could not possibly be in better hands."   
  
She closed her eyes. 'Eternia, for your sake and mine, I hope that you are as wise as the fire says.'  
  
Back in the temple, the fire roared high, and a strange, tinkling laughter came form the very bowels of the red and orange flame. Laughter, because it knew what only one other person knew. 


	6. A Demonic Entrance

PTWITBOAN, Chapter 6  
Black Beyond  
black_beyond@hotmail.com  
  
~'~  
  
I admit it! I'm also Underneath Society. Nyah!  
  
  
This is the entrance of the infamous crossover. And yes, I know there is a huge chunk of story missing! *goes into Yoda mode* Be explained all will. Patient be you must.  
  
  
O.o  
  
OOOOO! BIG SCARY YOUMA! RUN!!! *takes off*  
  
~'~  
  
  
"Can you help me?"  
  
He jerked around, looking wildly for the source of the beautiful voice.  
  
"Can you help me, please?" The agony and pleading in the voice sent a shock right to his spine and he jumped up, turning in all directions, making his teacher look at him intently while his friends jumped back.  
  
"Please help me."  
  
"Where ARE you!?" He roared, one hand to the scar on his forehead that burned so badly.   
  
"Help me, please." It had dwindled into a sobbing whisper.  
  
"I can't help you if I can't see you!" He almost screamed. He could feel her pain, an ache in the back of his throat that was blinding in its sadness.  
  
"I'll be there soon. Please help me."  
  
Like a crack from a whip, pain shot through his entire body at once and then died just as quickly, leaving the young man to faint on the floor of his classroom.  
  
~'~  
  
  
Usagi jerked out of her own reverie and looked up at Kunzite blindly. Uranus and Neptune stared at her, disturbed.  
  
'Hey! HEY! What the flying fuck was THAT?!' The true Usagi screamed at her. 'Who THE HELL WERE THOSE PEOPLE?!' When the girl didn't answer her, she became enraged. "TALK TO ME, DAMN YOU!"  
  
*Shut up.* Usagi snapped.   
  
"Usagi-san? Are you alright?" Neptune dehenshined and crossed the pretty room to kneel beside her princess. The girl had looked very out of it for a moment, and had begun whispering in a strange language before jerking forward and coming out of it.   
  
Usagi looked down at her, and a huge smile spread over her face. "I just found something most strange!" She leaned back into the couch. "I found my dimension, and there is a boy there that can help me. I can link to him and make it to my home again, and then he can help make things better."   
  
Haruka's brow furrowed. "Didn't you defeat Beryl there?"  
  
Usagi nodded. "I defeated the enemy, Haruka. There is still an army of rogue youma, not to mention the damages. I'll need more than the senshi to make it all better again. The palace will be built by magic, of course, but not everything can be done by magic alone. At least, not my kind of magic."  
  
"Are you going to leave, then?"  
  
'Leave? You can't leave!"  
  
Usagi nodded. "I'll leave when I get this body to Beryl. Then Usagi can take over and fight. It would be very wrong if I defeated Beryl here. It could screw with everything important. I'll leave."  
  
'I can't defeat BERYL! Are you CRAZY!?'  
  
"Are you sure that's wise?" Michiru asked, standing back. "I am sure that you believe our Sailormoon to have the power, but... wouldn't it just better if you destroyed her for us?"  
  
Usagi shook her head and stood up, pacing the room's length. "Don't you understand? By simply being here, I have already screwed with this universe's original path. I can't change the events of such an important thing. Doing something like that could send all of the Time Stream into a tangle that no amount of anything could undo. I'm sorry. I can get you there, perhaps, but I can't do this for you. And... I want to, I do..."  
  
"But I won't let her. And in this case, I have rank."  
  
Haruka and Kunzite jumped, Usagi grinned, and Michiru looked up, blinking.   
  
"Who are you and how did you get in here?" Haruka demanded, reaching for her henshin stick in blind instinct.  
  
The new comer stood cockily in the entranceway to the kitchen, her long, dark green hair, alive with violet highlights, splashing around her waist. Her garnet eyes, too glittery to be human, laughed at them from a face dark with a natural tan. She wore a senshi fuku of dark, forbidding colors that sobered them all, but most remarkable of all was the giant key, almost mistakable for a staff, topped by a garnet orb the exact color of her eyes.  
  
"My queen," The senshi struck a strange sort of curtsey that Michiru recognized slightly. Something familiar about the way that the gloves hand came fluidly to her chin and then out, smooth and languid, and the dip of Pluto's head, ever so slight...  
  
'We are equal, we are one, and of this we serve you...' Michiru shook her head, trying to clear the words that had been whispered into her mind.   
  
Usagi grinned. "It's about time I saw you in person, My Lady Time."   
  
"....lady time...?" Kunzite jumped up. "You're Sailor Pluto!"  
  
The senshi let her eyes twinkle at him. "And none other, General. Or should I give you the title of King?" She laughed merrily as his face darkened.   
  
"I am not that traitor any more." He scowled.  
  
She smiled. "Kunzite, I know that truth better than any."  
  
Michiru looked at her. "You are familiar to me." She murmured, trying to remember where exactly she had seen those eyes before. It stretched just beyond her mind's reach.  
  
"I know you from somewhere." Haruka had stood, her henshin clenched firmly in her fist.   
  
"Hold on, Uranus, before you try to decapitate me. My name is Sailor Pluto, and I knew you in your last life. And you can't kill me, so don't waste time trying. And-- Eternia must leave. Her own world is struggling without her presence."  
  
Kunzite faltered. "You can't... Sailormoon isn't half as powerful as she is. We'll loose!"  
  
Pluto's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "You need to take your faith out of the goddess and place it into the avatar. Just because the circumstances of her world made Usagi become something your Usagi will not achieve for thousands and thousands of years does *not* mean that all is hopeless!"  
  
She looked rather passionate about it, actually. Usagi grinned.   
  
"You know, you Pluto senshi ought to hook up sometime. There's lots our Setsuna could learn from you." She giggled.  
  
Pluto looked chagrined. "Actually, we do." She refused to say more. Instead, she swung her staff in the direction of the door.  
  
"It is time, Eternia. Usagi, stop yelling. You have the power."  
  
'How did she know that?!'  
  
-She's Pluto. There's little she doesn't.-  
  
"The inner senshi are tracking you here. And... Kunzite, darling... please, if you don't care..."  
  
He blinked. "Never-- what is it?" Her staff's orb glimmered and a strand of white-blonde hair fell into his eyes.  
  
"You are so much more handsome as a blonde, Kunzite." She winked at him and then stepped through a swirling mess of blackness that had appeared behind her.  
  
Usagi could have sworn that the last expression on Pluto's face was.... fear?  
  
She didn't have time to think about it. There was a heavy knock on the door, followed by giggles and a voice hushing the giggler.  
  
"But what if this isn't the right house?" Minako's voice asked.  
  
"It is!" Ami sounded rather annoyed.  
  
Usagi looked back. She had a famous Formula-1 racer, an even more famous violinist and artist, and a former dark king standing in her living room.   
  
She shrugged and opened the door.  
  
"Usagi! Usagi, I tried to tell them you were fine, I did, but--" Rei was babbling incoherently, and Makoto promptly put her hand over the fire senshi's mouth.  
  
Luna glared at her from Makoto's shoulder.  
  
"Well, Usagi, since you did run off like that, we just wanted to make sure you were okay--" Makoto began.  
  
Minako nodded, and tried to look over her friend's shoulder into the house. "Oooh! Visitors! Is this Seitosei's home?"  
  
"That's Haruka Ten'oh..." Ami caught a glimpse of the racer and looked at Usagi. "What's he doing here?"  
  
Usagi grinned. "Uhm... later for that. Actually, girls, Seisei or whatever I told you his name was... that's not his name."  
  
Makoto blinked. "What?"  
  
Minako grinned. "I knew it! So, what's his real name? Let me guess... he's a spy, right? From some secret government organization?" Her blue eyes got a starry look in them.  
  
Rei threw Makoto's hand away. "I didn't tell them a thing, Eternia-sama, I swear!"  
  
The other three senshi froze and Luna let out an ear-piercing shriek.  
  
"WHAAAAAAAAT DID YOU CALL HER?!!?" The small cat forgot about the three people avidly listening to the conversation. Artemis jumped on Makoto's other shoulder and stared at Usagi.  
  
"You're WHAT?" He echoed Luna's squeal.  
  
Usagi sighed. "Fine. The bunny's out of the hat. Kunzite, I suppose we don't have to worry anymore."  
  
"KUNZITE?!" Five voices shrieked at once.   
  
Usagi nodded. "Yes, actually. Here, why don't you all come in and I'll tell you about it? Now, now, Minako, Ami, Makoto, put the henshin sticks away for now. You have to fight Beryl soon, and I expect that you'll want to know what's been going on. And it will probably take a while. Oh, stop glaring at me like that, Luna." She swatted at the small neko.   
  
"You'd better have a really good explanation for all of this, Usagi!"  
  
'That's what I'M saying!'  
  
Usagi waited rather patiently until everyone was seated, with three senshi and two cats eyeing Kunzite warily, before she started.  
  
"I am not Usagi..."  
  
~'~  
  
And roughly two hours later, she finished. up. "And you guys known on the door, I answered, let it slip that my supposed boyfriend was actually a former dark kingdom king, and told you guys to come in before someone transformed, told you guys I wasn't Usagi, Makoto flipped, and then I told you guys the story."  
  
Haruka nodded. "And now, we have another announcement." She looked disturbingly satisfied.   
  
Michiru smiled. "In a short while, we must go up against Queen Beryl."  
  
Usagi looked at the inner senshi. "And when that happens, I have to go."  
  
Ami shook her head. "Wait, hold on for a moment. If you're not Usagi, you're actually the Daughter of Etern, then where is Usagi? I don't understand."  
  
Usagi smiled and tapped on the side of her head with her forefinger. "That confused me too, for a while. I just supposed, of course, that your Usagi had taken my place in my world. But then she started talking to me. It seems that I am merely an awareness inside her body. She's here. With me. This makes the situation all the more dire, because there is no Sailormoon, no ginzuishou, no anything in my world. No light to balance the darkness."  
  
Minako grinned. "Then that answers my question of how you managed to fool everyone. I admit, I may not be the most observant girl, and for a while I thought you were possessed. And then you stopped being strange. So that answers that."   
  
Makoto sighed and ground her palm into her forehead. "Mamoru will be happier, that's for sure. You know, for a guy who dumped you, he sure gets jealous."  
  
'Hn. He can go boink a lamppost for I care.'  
  
Usagi sniggered, and then shook her head. A dark feeling was beginning to curdle in the bowels of her stomach but she shook it off and smiled, standing up. She transformed, using Usagi's much weaker transformation.  
  
"We might as well get this over with." She said.  
  
"Shouldn't we go get Mamoru?" Ami asked, but was brushed off when Haruka and Michiru transformed as well.  
  
"Mamoru? Ha. What for? He'd just get in the way." Sailormoon snorted. "Come on. We can pull of a teleport and get there in no time. I'll make sure you all get to Beryl and then I'll leave. Simple as pie."  
  
~'~  
  
  
Most of the students of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were placidly eating lunch when the screams started from the few who has chosen to wander the grounds. Immediately the professors of the school were on their feet and running, Dumbledore in the lead.  
  
"It's too early in the year for this." McGonagall grumbled, close behind the Headmaster with Snape at her heels.   
  
"I SAID, GET OFF OF ME, YOU STUPID BEAST!" A distinctly female voice screeched as the small group of adults rounded the corner to the part of the grounds where the lake was, just in time to see a very petite young girl hurl a creature four times her size into a large tree. She pointed a long staff at it.  
  
"You shouldn't have followed me! You stupid youma!" A huge jet of black lightning erupted from the end of the staff and hit the beast in the center of its chest, turning it into a fine dust.  
  
Their eyes went back to the girl.  
  
She was short and lithe, and completely nude, her body streaked in blood, some her own, some not, and a liquid of a green hue, probably the blood of whatever she had just killed. She had hair the exact color of the moon that fell to the grass beneath her and eyes so big and gray that they looked like a child's.  
  
She turned to face them, fatigue clear on her face. "I'm... awfully sorry to come in... like this..." She managed, before she fainted dead away, crumpling to the ground in a small heap of limbs and hair.  
  
Dumbledore took note of the blazing symbol on her forehead, a circle with an infinity symbol inside, and immediately strode forward and picked her up, astonishingly strong in his apparent age.  
  
"Do NOT contact the ministry." He ordered, and without further explanation headed back for the castle, the mysterious little warrior safely in his embrace.  
  
"Definitely too early in the year." Remus Lupin agreed, and then assisted McGonagall in tending to the wounded.  
  
Severus Snape, however, turned and marched determined back to the castle, wanting some answer. He knew the Headmaster better than anyone thought, and the expression on Dumbledore's face had been one of surprised recognition.   
  
The girl had been familiar. Especially that glowing brand on her forehead. He knew he had seen it before, and it enraged him that he could not remember where. He stormed inside, ignoring the mob of students demanding information, and thought for a moment.  
  
If he were Dumbledore...  
  
Immediately he went for the infirmary at a speed that was dizzying, racing through corridors and stairways before they could even think of moving on him.   
  
He entered the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts considerably calmer but still very annoyed with himself. She saw the Headmaster and Madam Pomfrey hovering over a bed and approached it with wariness.  
  
Dumbledore nodded and moved aside to Snape could see. He was surprised that she had not yet been clothed, but his surprise was knocked away by the harsher feelings of shock to see the silvery blue glow, soft but definitely there, emitting from her many wounds, healing slowly and surely.  
  
"Who is she, Albus?" He asked tersely, as she groaned and twitched slightly as the glow began to work on the more serious wounds at her neck and stomach.  
  
Dumbledore hesitated, looking more troubled than Snape had ever before seen him. "I am not sure, Severus. But that symbol is ancient magic."  
  
They waited, watching as her wounds were healed. As the last cut vanished, all done in a matter of ten, perhaps fifteen minutes, all three of them watching in morbid fascination, the glow took her entire body and robes of a slinky dark gray appeared.  
  
And she began to wake up. First one silvery eye, and then the other, to stare at her audience in blatant dismay.  
  
"I don't know who any of you are, but for the love of Hecate, stop looking at me like that." She sat up suddenly and then moaned softly, cradling her head in her hands.  
  
"Stupid girl." They heard her mutter. "You're too weak to be moving like that." She took the words straight out of Poppy's mouth, and the nurse nodded.   
  
She looked up, giving each of them a long look. "I don't suppose any of you can tell if an evil woman named Beryl has taken over the world. And how old a certain Harry Potter is."  
  
Dumbledore answered before Severus could protest. "No, there has not been such a woman, and Harry Potter is sixteen and in his fifth year."  
  
She sighed and said something in a soft language that sounded very much like a curse. Dumbledore perked up at the sound.  
  
"Lunarian. And very rude, my dear."  
  
She colored. "I'm sorry. I wasn't aware you knew it. It appears the same thing that attacked me in mid teleportation also diverted my course. I meant to find a different world. And I'm stuck in this one, because I can't do inter-dimension stuff without Pluto. And Pluto... something's wrong." She shook her head sadly.  
  
Severus glared at her. "May we have your name, if you don't mind?" He tried to make it sound as nasty as he could, but failed.   
  
She smiled a little. "Which one?" She retorted childishly, and then lowered her face to stare at the floor. "Sorry. My true name is Eternia. However, you'll find I answer to Usagi much better. I am Queen of the Moon, and the warrior Sailor Cosmos when I choose to be. I came to ask another Harry Potter for help, but as you know things are not what they should be. This shall teach me to listen to my instincts more often."  
  
"Queen of the Moon?" Poppy blinked. "But she died over two thousand years ago. They all died. Even I know that and I almost failed history."  
  
Usagi grinned and looked for all the world like a child. "I'm rather appalled. I thought everyone knew that with Lunarians, the word impossible is merely a triviality. A game we take delight in winning at. I am a reincarnation of the late Princess, granted the blood of Etern from the man himself, and bearer of the ginzuishou." She giggled and stood up on shaky legs.  
  
Dumbledore smiled back. "You are at Hogwarts School, and I am Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. This is Professor Snape and Madam Pomfrey, Your Highness. And you are very welcome to stay as long as you like. You can be a sort of guardian angle to the school."  
  
She blinked, and then tears began to stream down her cheeks as she hugged the elderly wizard. "Thank you so much." Gone was the regal young woman, only the little girl who was sobbing into his robes like her heart was breaking.  
  
"I didn't mean for any of this to go so wrong." She cried, while Dumbledore tried to absorb his surprise at this sudden change. "It was supposed to be so easy-- but there was a Magiim with her-- how was I supposed to know-- and he had been playing the entire time-- even Metalia didn't know-- and...."  
  
She stepped back and hung her head. "Just... completely ignore me..." She said softly. "I don't have to eat because of this body, I'll just be quiet. And... this is a school of magic? Could I attend some classes now and then to brush up on my own magic?" The misery was edged out of her face by an eagerness that took all of them aback.  
  
Snape blinked. "Are you telling me that the most powerful Sorceress in the history of magic is BIPOLAR?" The dry sarcasm in his voice was underlined by a nervous sort of something.   
  
She turned and glared at him. "I am not bipolar. My mind just works too fast for my face. I'm pissed because I have a Magiim mucking around in my life, sending me places and interfering with my magic. And he's done something to Pluto. She would have never let this happen. And I have a chance now to find out how normal kids learn magic, instead of having eighteen years worth of knowledge explode in your head all at once." She was a bit surprised that there was no anger in her voice. "Especially since when I was around the first time, I was taught by tutors. I've never seen a school for magic before."  
  
Poppy blinked, and then smiled. "I'll let you and the professors talk. I have other patients...." She all but ran for her office.  
  
Dumbledore smiled gently at her and put his hand on her shoulder. "I have no problems with you sitting in on classes now and then, but I will talk to the other professors. Snape?"  
  
Snape looked from the girl to the Headmaster and did not let his smile show on his face. It would be most interesting to test the limits of this girl's knowledge in his class.  
  
"If she attended, I will insist she does so regularly." He said at last. "No once in a while ninnyness."  
  
She grinned, recognizing the challenge in his eyes. "Of course. I'll be quite happy to attend regularly. Even to actually enroll, if that is easiest."  
  
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled with something akin to mischief. "Severus, I have an idea..."  
  
~'~  
  
  
Uhm.... dun kill me? *giggles* 


	7. Meeting Severus Snape

PTWITBOAA  
BlackBeyond  
BlackBeyondChan@aol.com  
black_beyond@hotmail.com  
~-~  
  
--;;;;;  
  
THEY'RE TAKING AWAY ALL MY PRETTY NC17 STORIES! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!  
  
*sobs*... So cruel... so very, very cruel....  
  
This was written over writer's block and a month's time, so if it sucks, pity me with lots of comforting e-mails and reviews.  
  
My new url is http://www.geocities.com/eternally_bbeyond  
  
Don't go there! It sucks! XD  
  
  
~'~  
  
  
  
".... Miss Tsukino will be enrolled as a student at our school, having been forced to leave her home due to circumstances out of her control. She will be in the fifth year, but will not be sorted in a house." McGonagall announced at dinner. "She will be given her own room after her stay in the infirmary is complete."  
  
"No fair!" George-- or was it Fred?-- Weasley yelled.   
  
McGonagall glared at him. "That is all." She sat back down as food appeared on the table in a usual display of glamour.   
  
"It's never happened before, a student coming here in the middle of the year." Flitwick commented, as he dug into his kidney pie. "I've got her tomorrow. With the seventh years. I hope Dumbledore knows that he's doing."  
  
Professor Trelawney, who had decided to grace the school with her presence that day, sniffed and poked at her meat with her fork disdainfully. "She will become something great. I wish she had been placed in one of my classes."  
  
McGonagall bit down savagely on a piece of bread and chanted inwardly. 'I do not speak ill of my colleagues... will not throttle Sybill...'  
  
Madame Hooch grinned. "I have her tomorrow as well. From what I saw of her, she's going to be a bloody fantastic flyer. The way she threw that demon..." None of them had seen her so excited since Harry's exploits in his First Year.  
  
"I have her with the fifth years." Hagrid looked doubtful. "I don't know how she'll do with the new project I'm taking on."   
  
Sprout grinned. "I have her with the seventh years too. What a mix up of classes, huh?"   
  
"Severus has her with his fifth years, but I have her with my seventh years. She and Dumbledore chose her classes carefully, going on what she knows and what she thinks she can handle." McGonagall did not mention her strange interest with Harry Potter. "She's also taking Defense Against the Dark Arts with the fifth years, Professor Kitchen."  
  
The dark haired professor nodded absently, her blue eyes mixed unseeingly on her plate.   
  
McGonagall bit her tongue again. How that scatter-brained woman ever got that job she would never know.  
  
Sinistra sighed. "This is going to be another one of those years, isn't it?"  
  
Unwittingly, they all agreed.  
  
Harry, Ron, and Hermione, like most of the students, watched their professors converse as they did so themselves.  
  
"She was really messed up when she Apparated." Fred was telling them all.  
  
"Blood was literally pouring off of her." George nodded.  
  
"And then she picked up the demon that had appeared the same time she did and just threw it." Fred grinned.  
  
"Four times her size. Maybe five. And then she pointed a stick at it and BOOM!" George's first slammed down on the table.  
  
"Smashing. Absolutely awesome." They finished together.  
  
Ron looked dismayed. "Why do you two get all the fun?" He pouted, shoving a roll in his mouth.  
  
Hermione waved a paper around. "That's not all. Today the Dementors left Azkaban. All of them, at once. And there have been other whispers. You-Know-Who is gathering his forces. That demon we saw was part of a large species called Youma.... they've been moving out of their usual areas, too..."  
  
Harry paled just a little but nodded. "And what is Fudge saying about it?" He wanted to know.  
  
Hermione smiled very widely and read from the Special Edition. "Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge refused comment as he slammed the door in the face of our reporters..."  
  
The incited much laughter from the small group of Gryffindors. Everything was just settling down into a mostly normal night when the doors to the Great Hall burst open and Dumbledore entered, followed by Snape and the girl of the hour, dressed in her dark robes, her hair still loose.   
  
The Hall fell silent as she passed each table, one by one. Dumbledore stopped in front of the Gryffindor table, and bade her sit beside George Weasley at the end of the table. He conjured up a chair and plate for her.  
  
"Make some friends, dear. It will do you good." He smiled at her in a rather Grandfatherly way as she sat down, and she smiled back as she sat down next to the cute boy.  
  
The two professors headed up to the staff table and Usagi turned to the silent table and blushed to find them all staring at her.   
  
"Uhm.... hello." She said uncertainly.  
  
Fred looked across the table to his brother.  
  
George looked back.  
  
It happened at the same time.  
  
"WE LOVE YOU!"  
  
Usagi blinked and then laughed, looking at the twins, her face red. "Well... uhm.... I love you too.... I think..." She giggled at them and stuck out her hand. They both tried to shake it at once, which only made her laugh more.  
  
"I'm Usagi. But you can call me Usa..."   
  
"I'm Fred. He's George. That's our little brother Ron. That's our sister Ginny, and he's Harry Potter."  
  
"She's Hermione. That's Neville, Seamus, Dean..." George picked up. "And so on. Blah. So, are you single?"   
  
Usagi sighed. "Unfortunately, I am taken." Because I don't want to see the monster the blood of Etern and that of a human would make, infused with that kind of energy.... she shuddered, thinking of how she would break it to Endymion.  
  
And shrugged. He'd get over it.  
  
All of Gryffindor laughed as George's face fell. Fred, however, was more determined.   
  
"What is your take on rules?" He asked mysteriously.  
  
This brought a truly devilish smirk to her face. "There's not a single rule that I can't break or haven't already broken. And I never get caught." She added proudly.  
  
George forgot all about dating her as his eyes narrowed. "Prove it."   
  
She leaned over to whisper in his ear. "Don't blink." And leaned back, grinning.   
  
She nodded, biting her lip to keep the laughter down, and then began placing things on the table.  
  
George's eyes widened as he saw his wand, his watch, his favorite quill, a folded up piece of paper he recognized as his list of phone numbers of girls, five Ton-Tongue Toffees, his wallet, and a Butterbeer.  
  
Fred watched in amazement as George squealed and began patting himself down, finding empty pockets where seconds ago all of this had been. Usagi looked most satisfied with herself.  
  
Ron pushed his brother aside and began shaking her hand. "You are now officially my best friend." He told her as George began stuffing his possessions back into his pockets while glowering at Usagi.  
  
Harry grinned. "What about me?" He blinked as Usagi shifted slightly to look at him, her eerie silver eyes connecting with his own.   
  
"I know you..." She said softly, in a voice that he knew very, very well. He sat back so suddenly he almost fell out of his chair.   
  
"YOU!" His voice was a loud whisper of absolute shock.   
  
She blinked. "So you were that little boy I saw. I wondered. But... that would mean...." A dark flash of anger made her eyes go almost black for the briefest second. "That stupid man has interfered with my life for the last time." She muttered to herself darkly.   
  
Fred blinked, and George looked up from placing the Butterbeer back in the waistband of his boxers. Harry looked uncertain.  
  
"You have to teach us how you just did that." Fred said excitedly. But Usagi didn't hear him. She stood up, pushing back her chair, and stomped out of the Great Hall, her flying out behind her.  
  
Dumbledore watched her go with a definite smile on his face.   
  
"This is going to be a very interesting year with that sort of fireball here." His smile widened as Snape jumped back from the table and ran after the Queen, cursing under his breath. "Very interesting indeed."  
  
~'~  
  
  
"ARGH! THAT STUPID MAGIIM WILL PAY FOR THIS!" Usagi screeched, the second she stomped out of the castle and into the night air. "He has probably been manipulating me from the moment I got rid of Metalia! NO ONE MANIPULATES THE SENSHI OF THE COSMOS!" She spotted the sanctuary that a forest offered and instinctively headed for it.   
  
"I will not be treated like a pawn! What does he expect me to do here, exactly?" She fumed, stomping deeper and deeper into the forbidden forest and finally pausing when she came to a small clearing, just large enough for the half moon in the sky to shine, lighting up the clearing. With a smile Usagi moved into the healing light of her home, and looked up to watch the stars move around the moon.  
  
"Oooh. So, I'm in danger again?" She murmured, reading the stars like they were a child's reader. "From a guy who calls himself Lord Wish of Death?! Oh. Voldemort. Sounds familiar. Oh, look. He's trying to maim Harry. No, wrong planet. He's trying to *kill* the Hairy Ceramist. Oooh, nice. We have a traitor who will try to kill me." She studied the angle of Mars carefully and grinned. "That looks like fun."  
  
"The Queen of Eternia. You shouldn't be in the forest." She glanced over to see a centaur enter the clearing and approach her and went back to staring at the stars.  
  
"Why the hell not? It isn't like they can kill me." She retorted as the blonde centaur also turned his face to the heavens. "And besides, I have never seen the stars so clear. I've already pulled a name from them."  
  
The centaur nodded. "You have to protect Harry Potter, Eternia." He told her, his eyes traveling the lines of Polaris to Jupiter. "You are the only one with that kind of power in this world. This is a world without the awakening of your senshi for quite a few more years."  
  
She looked at him. "I knew there had to be a reason I couldn't feel them." She nodded, and smiled softly. "I really don't look like a warrior, do I, sir?" She asked him seriously a sad sort of smile on her face.   
  
The centaur smiled back, a monumental occurrence. "Perhaps not, but that is why you shall always have an advantage, dear Queen."  
  
She sighed. "Advantage. Ha. Not in this world. Not against that blasted Magiim." Her staff appeared in her hand and she tapped the end of it against the grass. "But I could look at the bright side. At least here I can learn more magic and moon over cute professors while I'm dying to save the life of someone else."  
  
The centaur laughed, a motion it was not used to making. It was well worth the surprise when she gave him a true smile.   
  
"TSUKINO! IF YOU BELONGED TO A HOUSE THIS WOULD COST THEM FOUR THOUSAND POINTS!" A very enraged male voice was near and getting closer.   
  
Usagi giggled. "That would be Severus Snape. Incredibly handsome." She commented to her new friend. "He's scaring the animals."  
  
The second that word left her lips a bulky, lumbering creature entered the clearing. The centaur's eyes widened and he went for his bow and arrow, recognizing the white-bear-like monster that no wizard knew of long enough to tell.   
  
Usagi only watched it in smooth interest, and the centaur jumped when she opened her mouth and began to speak its language.  
  
"Hello, my friend. Is the strange man too loud for this hour?" The centaur couldn't understand her words but knew when to step back as the monster took interest and approached her.   
  
"Yes. You... you are the Queen!" It quickened its pace and tackled her. She giggled and sat up, rubbing the feather-soft fur of its neck.  
  
"Yes, I am the Queen." She chuckled. "You're very large. How old are you?"  
  
It looked back at the treeline. "I have seen about six moons. I will grow to be much larger some day. But I am still big enough to carry you. Want to see?" It kneeled a little, and Usagi grinned and took a dainty seat on the broad, soft back. It was just a giant bear, really. And she had always had a special place for bears in her heart.  
  
"That loud man will come into the clearing in a moment." She warned her new pet. "Please don't hurt him."  
  
The bear shifted and took a step, testing the weight on its back. It was surprised to find that the Queen weighted very little. It could hardly tell it was carrying someone. "I won't attack if he is a friend of yours, Queen. May I carry you back to the school?"  
  
She nodded, petting it mindlessly. "Of course. Look, here he is."  
  
Severus Snape burst into the clearing, wand out and face red with his anger. He froze, momentarily, to see Usagi sitting on a bear large enough to eat her without chewing.  
  
"Good evening, Professor." She called to him happily. "My friend here promises not to eat you and has offered to give me a ride back to the school. And as you are in considerable danger in this place of darkness, I would say we should go."  
  
Snape glanced at the bear-monster, who growled at him, showing off rather long and sharp teeth. He decided very quickly it would not do to yell at Usagi at that moment, or argue that she would not be allowed to ride the sadistic monster back.  
  
"Yes, well, then, come along." He put his wand away slowly as the beast lumbered towards him, Usagi smiling rather evilly.  
  
"I'd offer you a seat, but she has informed me she will rip your bowels out and use them for a nest if you touch her." Usagi informed him nonchalantly. "But she says that there is a shorter way out of the forest, so if you'll follow her, I think she's trustworthy."  
  
Not trusting himself to say anything that wouldn't get him killed, Snape nodded shortly.  
  
"You want to know why I'm so strange, Severus Snape?" Usagi asked softly, not looking at the older man, as the bear navigated the forest.   
  
"It would be a start, Miss Tsukino." He replied dryly, pushing various tree limbs out of his way.  
  
Her face darkened a little. "What would you do if when you looked at a person, you could see their past, present, and future, all at once, and you were bound by spells older than magic itself from saying or doing anything?" She asked, failing miserably at keeping the emotion from her voice. "Bound by spells so precise that they hide all eternal knowledge of it? So precise you have to search the Rulebook for hours to find a single loophole that allows you to only speak of it in a second person, hypothetical sense?"  
  
Snape didn't glare. "I would have gone insane by now." He answered thoughtfully. "How do you manage it?"  
  
She looked at him and then looked away. "Let's just say that I'll never insult you, Severus. And that you shouldn't insult Harry." She sighed. "I have thousands and thousands and thousands of years to go, Severus. I can't live them as a broken twit. I get over things, and I get over them fast."  
  
They broke out of the forest then, and Usagi slid off her new friend and it disappeared back into the depths of the forest.. There were three professors waiting at the steps to the castle, Dumbledore not being one of them.   
  
Snape watched as she took Sinistra's outstretched hand with a smile and all the dignity of a young woman raised to be a lady, and allowed the three professors to lead her into the castle while apparently listening attentively to their lecture on rules.  
  
His eyes narrowed.  
  
~'~  
  
  
As it turned out, Usagi's room wasn't far from the Slytherin dorms. She found this out the next morning by running into a brick wall of a boy, his would-be twin, and a rather beautiful young man who reminded her of a younger Kunzite with short hair.  
  
"Ah! I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed, catching herself before she did a nose dive into the stone floor and stepped back, straightening her dark robes.  
  
The blonde boy eyed her. "You're that new girl." He said, with a rather arrogant drawl. "I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy. That's Crabbe and this is Goyle." He extended his hand.  
  
Usagi took it, ignoring the dark feeling she got from him and smiled. "I'm Usagi Tsukino. Malfoy, hmm?" She had seen that name in the stars. "It's my pleasure to meet you."  
  
He nodded, and she swore he fought down a smile. Instead, he offered his arm. "We were just heading down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Would you like to join us?"  
  
She could feel the darkness from the other two, and it weighed in her head like the heaviest rock, but she took his arm with a smile. He looked so much like Kunzite.  
  
"So, what sort of family are you from?" He asked, in a faked nonchalant tone. Her eyebrow arched but she replied in an even voice.  
  
"My family is dead."   
  
"I'm sorry. Were they wizards?" Draco asked, as they entered the hall. Usagi gritted her teeth and answered as sweetly as she could.   
  
"I couldn't tell you." She caught George's eye and made a distinct HELP ME expression. George grabbed his twin by the collar and they set off to rescue their new mischief maker.  
  
"I noticed Dumbledore wanted you to get all chummy with the Gryffindors. May I offer you a piece of advice? They're just a bunch of goody-goodies. If you want true power, I'm your man."  
  
It took all of her willpower to bite down that giggle. True power? He had no idea.   
  
"Usagi!"  
  
"Darling!"  
  
"Goddess!"  
  
"We need your professional opinion on something!" Fred yanked her out of Draco's arms.   
  
George nodded, as he took one hand and his brother grabbed the other. "Something very important!"  
  
"Something phenomenal." Fred added, just for the hell of it, as they led Usagi away before Draco could think better of it and take the girl back.   
  
"I will never be able to thank either of you enough. Draco wasn't so bad once I got past that mask of his, but those two tanks... I do believe they'd have fun hexing a baby."  
  
Fred snorted. "You bet they would."  
  
George agreed whole heartedly as they found three seats in the middle of the table and grabbed them quickly.  
  
"What did Malfoy want with you?" George asked, as Usagi grabbed a blueberry muffin in delight.   
  
"He wanted to know if my family were wizards." Usagi smiled slightly, revealing she knew a secret. "I should have told him the truth. And don't look at me like that... just because I wouldn't tell him does not mean I will tell you."  
  
The twins opened their mouth to protest that they would never ask such a imprudent question when Hermione's voice interrupted them.  
  
"Usagi, what class do you have first?"  
  
Usagi blinked, and dug in the pocket of her robes for her schedule. She glanced at it carefully. "Uhm... that would be Potions, with Gryffindor and Slytherin, Fifth year." She read. "And after that I have Transfiguration with the Seventh years."  
  
Fred and George grinned at each other while Hermione nodded. "You've got your first class with us."  
  
Usagi smiled at her. "May I walk with you, Hermione? From what I've seen this is a fairly sized castle and I don't wish to get lost for Severus's class."  
  
Ron blinked and whispered to Harry, "Did she just call him Severus?"  
  
Hermione blinked as well, but shrugged. "Sure." She picked up her bag. "We'd better go now unless you want to be late. Professor Snape can be very....  
  
"Grouchy?" Usagi supplied, picking up her own bag. "Yes, I know." She slung the strap over her shoulder as Ron and Harry stood. "See you later, Fred. George."   
  
The walk to Potions was long, and the first two minutes was complete silence, mostly with the three friends sneaking glances at the exotic beauty and then at each other, seeing who would break first and ask.  
  
Usagi was trying not to be overly amused, but after thirty seconds more of the silence, added with the stares from every group of students they passed, she was ready to giggle hysterically.  
  
"Go ahead, ask." She said finally.   
  
Before either of his friends could stop him, Ron blurted, "Did you REALLY throw a demon four times your size into a tree?!"  
  
"Ron!" Hermione gasped, chiding him for the rudeness of the question. Harry just looked intrigued, studying Usagi's face when she smiled.  
  
"He was only a little bigger than I was." She replied, her smile a little smug. "It was his own fault. That bloody monster followed me through-- oh, never mind. But he deserved it."   
  
Ron grinned. "Can you fight well? Like, real fighting, not with wands?"  
  
Usagi blinked. "Wands? Oh. Uhm, yes." She said tentatively. "I was taught to fight. It was... a necessity... where I come from."   
  
The slight tremble in her voice was missed by all except Harry. His brow furrowed as Usagi bit her lip and quickened her step ever so slightly. At once he knew she was hiding something very important from them.  
  
"Miss Tsukino, I see you're on time." Seemingly out of no where, the dark Potions Professor fell into step beside the troubled girl.   
  
She looked up at him and a smile spread over her face. "As if I could ever be late for your class, Sev-- Professor." She blushed a little. "I forgot. You're officially my teacher now. Uhm..." Her blush darkened, making her unbearably gorgeous. "Oh, never mind." She fled into the classroom, leaving her Professor and three friends to stare after her.  
  
"Strange girl, that one." Harry commented.  
  
"For once, Potter, I can't disagree."  
  
Snape swept into the classroom with his usual amount of drama, just enough to make Neville cower and gather the usual fearful respect from the rest of the class. Except Usagi. She had chosen a seat near the front, her parchment and textbook already out, quill in hand, and a very becoming blush on her cheeks.  
  
Snape was not one to note beauty, at all in any circumstance, but he had never before had the chance to meet a Lunarian before. Of course, the books did speak of the Queen's grace and face, but books tended to be a bit biased when the subject of royalty came up, saying that every Queen was magnificent and every princess darling.  
  
And he had to challenge the books in this case. Usagi was not darling. She had a strong, undeniable presence of power that commanded an unconscious respect from her peers and even adults. Her looks actually would have been less remarkable-- still gorgeous, true-- but it was how she carried herself. Not quite arrogance, but a self-assurance no girl had at her age.  
  
Her apparent age, he reminded himself. She was older than she looked. Probably about his own age, if her story and his brain were checking out.   
  
Which made her, all things considered, his superior.  
  
Something he was indefinitely unhappy with.  
  
After the unusual display last night, he was actually sort of wary about her. She had spoken to that monstrosity in a tender fashion, and it had been very protective of her. She was a Queen, and if she could speak to that sort of species, he wondered why Dumbledore had not yet asked for her help in this dreadful war.   
  
"Open your textbooks." He snapped suddenly, shaking himself out of his own reverie. "Page 423. Find the ingredients in your bags and start making the potions in pairs. Choose your own partners-- Not Longbottom, Miss Granger!" He glared at the girl. Hermione sighed.   
  
Usagi watched in intrigue, and walked over to Neville. "I'll be your partner. I'll have to warn you, though. I haven't studied potions for two thousand years." She said seriously, with only a humorous glint in her eye. He looked a bit stunned for a moment, that she would ask *him*, and nodded mutely. Snape opened his mouth to protest, but gave up. He went back to stalking around the room, breathing down students' necks and watching them try not to be completely terrified of him.  
  
But Usagi, on the other hand, seemed quite determined to ruin any reputation of his that involved being a malicious, cold-hearted bastard.  
  
"Professor-chan," She said, as he came to glare at Neville. He paused, unsure of what the strange suffix meant. She had said it in a rather endearing way. Almost mocking his status. "I'm not quite sure of this. Nightshade and Dark Opium... when you combine them like this, don't they explode?"  
  
He blinked. That was seventh year curriculum.   
  
"True, Miss Tsukino. But the powered dragon heart acts as an neutralizer. Who taught you that?"  
  
She looked at Neville nervously. "One of the first things my... tutors... taught me was a list of every single ingredient used in potion making, and which ones reacted with what and how." She blushed. "I used to have this tendency to make things blow up a lot when I was angry." With that she added the ingredients to the potion and it bloomed suddenly into a wonderful violet color.  
  
Neville poked it with his ladle. It actually looked like the illustration in the book, something he had never been able to achieve before.  
  
Snape moved away to haunt Harry and Usagi smiled at Neville.  
  
"Neville, you really shouldn't be so bad in here. I mean, it's just Herbology with a cauldron. And you're good at that, right?" She inquired nonchalantly, watching intently as he dropped a piece of black, slimy mouse liver into the cauldron.  
  
Neville stared at her. "How did you know that?" He asked, as he stirred the pretty mixture. The fumes were sweet-smelling, like honey and jasper, but they were making him decidedly drowsy. He noticed that most of the other students-- well, all of them, it seemed-- were also getting sleepier by the moment.  
  
Usagi only sighed, the only one unaffected by the vapors. "Professor, this is cruel. No one is going to get this potion right if they're all sleep. Helena's Hellfire Sleeping Draughts.... and one of the most powerful..."  
  
Snape shrugged. "Madam Pomfrey needs to stock up, with O.W.L.S. coming near. This is fifth year curriculum and it will save me lots of time." He struggled with a grin as Ron Weasley passed out. Usagi rolled her eyes and kept stirring the potion.  
  
"Hehe... so we're all going to pass out? Why not you?" Neville was unaware his words were a bit slurred.  
  
Usagi only looked at him and didn't answer. Part of him might have remarked this as a clue, but he promptly forgot it when he too fell asleep, bonking his head on the side of the cauldron as he did.  
  
Usagi shook her head and finished the potion quite easily without her partner, and was one of five who could. She was surprised more of the students hadn't performed the Bubble Charm to keep them from breathing the fumes.  
  
Snape seemed disgruntled that out of his entire house, only Draco Malfoy had the brains to find a way to stay awake. He took five points from all the unconscious students, cleared the fumes away with a flick of his wand and a muttered spell, and ordered the five standing to use Enervate to awaken their friends.  
  
Usagi waited until no one was looking and muttered something under her breath that made her stagger just a little and the rest of the unconscious people open their eyes. Neville sat up just as the strange girl regained her composure.   
  
"Welcome back to the living." She greeted him with a smile, however fake. "You lost five points for passing out but we have an A on the potion."  
  
Without warning he hugged her tightly. "THANK YOU! You just saved my grade!"  
  
While she updated Neville on Snape's current mood, unnoticing of the way Hermione was staring at her.   
  
"How did she do that?" Hermione muttered quietly. She had seen the girl say a spell, and then everyone in the room had woken up. It was an impossible thing, but she had done it.  
  
Snape nodded when Usagi suggested that class be dismissed and ordered everyone out. Hermione also noticed that Usagi stayed behind, and made a point to be the last out, just barely hearing Usagi's next words.  
  
"Well, Severus, it seems you're the bastard everyone says you are. You should be nicer."  
  
"Miss Tsukino, you're a riot."  
  
Wide eyed, she told Ron and Harry about it as soon as they had left the dungeons.  
  
---------------------  
  
Extra long and extra juicy to make up for the lateness! Leave me lots of pretty reviews! 


	8. Familiar Faces

Purging, Chapter Eight  
Familiar Faces  
Black Beyond  
  
------------  
  
O_o  
  
I really need to get out the next chapter of Death, Be not Proud, don't I? *runs to work on it* Stupid writers block...  
  
  
  
"Where's your familiar, little witch?"  
  
Usagi didn't bother to turn to see the face of the voice. It was a low, haunting tenor, one she recognized all too well. They all had the same voice. She shook her head slightly, and turned the page of the spell book she was reading.  
  
"Who needs one of those?" She replied smoothly, fully aware of the danger she was in. The tree was digging into her back but if she moved now she was going to be in a lot of pain. Not dead-- she wasn't even sure she could die anymore.  
  
"Do you know what happens to little witches when we find them in our forest?"  
  
The voice took on an amused, threatening note and she turned another page.  
  
"Oh, I'm sure you have several tortures you enjoy. Why don't you tell me? You're going to anyway." She tried to see the words on the page and failed. She reached for her power and grasped it tightly, not activating it but almost.  
  
"Very smart, little witch." It came closer and she shuddered as a clawed hand ran through her silver hair. "Very beautiful. Your beauty is almost inhuman, almost veela. But I know the scent of veela."  
  
Usagi noted wryly that her father had been the creator of veela but decided that her guest would not appreciate the knowledge.   
  
"Youma, if you have a purpose here, speak it now. I'm trying to study and I'll willing to let you go in one piece if you leave in the next two minutes." She turned another page and hid her relief when the words started making sense again.  
  
"Wouldn't you think yourself so powerful? I am not just any youma. I am more powerful than you could ever dream." It crooned into her ear, almost lovingly. She rolled her eyes.   
  
"Of course you are. You know, you should really do some research before you go after vulnerable young maidens in the forest, Youma. Look at me. I'm not human at all."  
  
She could feel its heart quicken in anger and confusion. "No, you're not." It replied, after a moment. "But I don't recognize you."  
  
"You wouldn't. No youma has fought me and lived. No dark creature, for that matter, has fought me and lived. Use your eyes, fool." She turned and pointed to the moon, taking it the dragon-like scales and claws in a quick glance. "See how She shines on me?" The textbook fell, forgotten. "I am her last Daughter."  
  
It backed away quickly, its talons slipping from her hair and it stared at her with growing horror. "You're the girl that was killed. The one that the Old Queen swore would come avenge her. I was there, with my Dark Queen." For a scaly sort of beast, it looked quite pale. "She... said that her daughter would return... and that she would finish the deed..."  
  
Usagi looked at it coldly. "I am not that daughter. I am the daughter of a man that ceased to exist eons ago. I am Etern's Daughter." Was it actually trembling now? "Now run, youma. I know you now serve the one called Voldemort. Tell him to keep his minions away from this school. I deserve a break, and as long as I am in your world the boy Harry is under MY protection. If he dares cross me I will not hesitate to unleash my fury upon him." Her eyes flashed. "If I see another dark creature on these grounds, not only will I kill it, I will send a curse after the lot of you that has not been seen in this galaxy since the second Freezing!" Her voice grew impassioned. "Now go! Give your Lord that message! Etern's Daughter protects the boy!"  
  
She watched, much too satisfied, as the dark creature turned tail and ran. She sighed and picked up her textbook, and leaned back into the trunk comfortably.  
  
"Now, to figure out this bloody Summoning Spell..." She sighed.   
  
~'~  
  
  
"That settles it."  
  
"Yeah. She's going to get killed, going in there like that."  
  
"I don't know. She seems pretty sure of herself."  
  
"That doesn't matter, Harry. It's forbidden to go into the forest."  
  
"Oh, like that seems to stop her, Hermione."  
  
"Shut up, Ron."  
  
Harry watched from the window of Hagrid's cabin as his two friends started another bout of arguments. They had just watched Usagi emerge from the Forbidden Forest, glowing silver in the moonlight, a book tucked under her arm.   
  
He watched her glide over the grounds and up the stairs, a frown on his face.  
  
She did have an unnatural aura of confidence around her, as he had remarked earlier. It was the step of Dumbledore, of Superman, the step of someone who had laughed Death in the face and then embraced him like an old chum. Someone who was afraid of nothing.  
  
Going into the forest like that... surely she had met up with something big and nasty.   
  
There was something strange about her. The way she blew off Malfoy so effortlessly, how she had managed to procure even Snape's respect, and the way the paintings bowed to her. Exchange student? For some reason he thought she was older than that. But she looked so young sometimes. Perhaps Ginny's age. And the next moment she would look like she'd been around to see Dumbledore's birth.  
  
"I know what you're thinking, Harry." How had Hagrid crept up on him like that! "Don't even begin to suspect that one. Snape.... Fudge.... even Trelawney... of course. But that lady right there? Dumbledore will turn to Voldemort before she does."  
  
Harry looked up at the giant of a man. "How are you so sure?"  
  
Hagrid's smile gave him away. "Her mother was the greatest sorceress to defend our side. And it's in her blood. If she touches Dark Magic like that it will kill her, I think. She's not... she's different. And besides, she's protecting you."  
  
Harry blinked. "What?"  
  
Hagrid groaned. "I shouldn't have told you that."  
  
Ron and Hermione had broken out of their argument. "Protecting Harry?" Ron asked. "Why?"  
  
Hagrid looked at them and sighed, throwing up his hands. "You're bound to find out anyhow, you lot. But don't tell Dumbledore I told you. He really would sack me for this."  
  
Hermione's eyes went wide. "Who is she, Hagrid?"  
  
Ron grinned. "She's a spy, isn't she? A double agent?"  
  
Hagrid shook his head. "I can't tell you specifics. I don't know them myself. But I do know she's not human, and she's got the power to destroy Voldemort and his entire army in one finger."  
  
Harry listened, but Ron scoffed.  
  
"Yeah, right. If she had that kind of power she'd already have done it."  
  
Hermione, however, was connecting the dots. "Not if she didn't think it was her business.... right, Hagrid?" A spark of passion lit in her face, the exact look she got right before an exam. "She'll do meager things... like watch over Harry, maybe... keep a few dark creatures away from the castle... but if she doesn't think it's her business..."  
  
Hagrid groaned. "I'm going to get sacked, for sure."  
  
"Who is she, Hermione? You know, don't you?" Harry asked. Ron stared at his friend.  
  
Hermione broke into a smile. "She's half veela, half mermaid."  
  
Hagrid blinked. "What?" He caught himself. "Oh, sure. Of course she is. Leave it to you, Hermione, to figure it out." Unfortunately, lying was not Hagrid's forte. Hermione's face fell.  
  
"Then what is she?" Harry asked. "You know, Hagrid. What is she? She's not human, Hermione was right about that."  
  
Ron's eyes darted from Hagrid to Harry, and back. Hagrid blinked first.  
  
"She's Princess Serenity." Hagrid said, at last.   
  
This meant absolutely nothing to the boys, but Hermione's eyes nearly exploded from their sockets. She pounced on Hagrid, grabbing his collar and yanking him down to face level with surprising strength.  
  
"HOW?! That's IMPOSSIBLE! She's DEAD! And has been! For two thousand years!"  
  
Hagrid looked very surprised. "She was reincarnated. Her mother did it. All of her court was. It's very possible for a Lunarian."   
  
"Lunarian..." Ron muttered. "Weren't they the ones that had a huge kingdom on the moon a long time ago?"  
  
Hagrid nodded miserably. "And she is the daughter of Etern."  
  
Hermione's mouth worked up and down like a fish out of water, but the words wouldn't form. Harry's eyebrow raised. "What does that mean, Hagrid?"  
  
Ron had gone very pale. Even he knew who Etern was.  
  
"She... she..."  
  
"All-powerful." Ron supplied. "Etern was... the creator of magic, Harry. Etern was the creator of this solar system. Even I know that." He shot a look to a still wordless Hermione.   
  
Harry began to realize, slowly, what exactly that could mean.  
  
  
~'~  
  
  
She remembered.  
  
It took her a moment, and she was ashamed of it. But it took her a full moment, curled up in the heavy, dark blankets, surrounded by bed curtains that let no light enter her bed, to remember who she was and where she had been.  
  
She groaned and rubbed her hand with her hands, cursing herself for her panic for her nightmares and stumbled out of bed, nearly tripping over the covers.  
  
The dawn was just breaking through her window, throwing a rosy light over her, turning her silver hair a familiar shade of pink, one she recognized from her second childhood. She smiled at it and shoved her nightmares from her mind.  
  
In silence, she dressed herself in her robes and tucked her long hair up into a bun. No need of make-up of hairbrushes, or of simple, beautiful food. Not that she couldn't use them, it was just that they weren't needed. She missed the need of them, the feeling of being human.   
  
"Shhhh! She'll hear us!"  
  
"Fred, you're going to get us killed this time. I know it."  
  
"Shhh! Uh... what's the Unlocking Spell again?"   
  
Usagi rolled her eyes and stepped away from the mirror into a dark corner and drew the shadows around herself as Fred muttered the old Latin that unlocked her door. She watched as they, very quietly, entered her room and shut the door behind them. She hadn't bothered to pull apart of the curtains of her bed, so to them it looked as though she was still asleep.  
  
"Cold water?" George asked.  
  
"If it was hot we'd definitely die." Fred replied, reading his wand as his brother did the same. Usagi grinned and lifted her palms to face the Weasley Twins and began to recite a spell in her head.  
  
"On the count of three." George decided. "One, two, THREE!"  
  
Together they ripped the curtains back and in the second of surprise when they found only mussed blankets Usagi finished the spell and they found themselves to be much, much shorter. And furrier.   
  
"Kawaii!" Usagi exclaimed. "The exact color of your hair, too!" She skipped out of her hiding place and scooped the two disgruntled foxes up into her arms and snuggled them tightly. At this, the left fox, formerly George, noticeably brightened. Fred, however, sulked, his eyes only widening a little at the close proximity of her breasts.  
  
She caught their looks.  
  
"Ah-ah-ah!" She tossed them on her bed. "That's very perverted of you both. I'm way too old for either of you." She grinned. "And you can't tell anyone I just let that slip to either of you. Don't look at me like that, whichever Twin you are, because you deserve it. I might have killed you both if you'd surprised me like that." Her smile was cheerful but her eyes were serious. "I'm going to turn you back now, even though you are so dreadfully adorable. And then I'm probably going to glomp you both."  
  
Lifting her palms, there was bolt of blue magic to both of them and then Fred and George Weasley were sitting on her bed, both looking annoyed and abashed.  
  
That changed when Usagi took a flying leap at them and started a rather interesting tickle fight.  
  
~'~  
  
  
Dumbledore resolutely stopped himself from doing a double take when Usagi Tsukino walked into the Great Hall for breakfast, Fred and George Weasley on either side of her, and all three of them considerably mussed and bedraggled, both twin wearing very silly smiles and Usagi looking like she was the cat who got the cream AND the canary.  
  
As they passed the teacher's table, he heard George whisper to his brother, "Remind us to try and get killed tomorrow, too."  
  
Usagi punched him lightly. "Ecchi no..." She raised and eyebrow and sighed. "Twin, I guess. Argh. One day I'm going to figure out how to tell you both apart."  
  
Fred's eyes lit up. "That bit about you being too old?" He broke into song. "Age ain't nothing but a nuuumber!"  
  
George agreed. "Besides, age isn't anything to goddesses!"  
  
Usagi went very pale before she realized they were joking. "Oh. Oh! Well, take it up with the Headmaster, koibito. I promised him I would behave."  
  
She continued to the Gryffindor table, but the twins turned very slowly to face Dumbledore. McGonagall discreetly scooted her chair away from the unfortunate Headmaster while the other professors instantly found their plates to be the most fascinating things they had ever seen.   
  
At the same time, they fell to their knees and crawled to tug on the hem, of his robe.  
  
"We'll never plant another dungbomb!"  
  
"We'll stay out of Filch's Butterbeer stash!"  
  
"We'll never talk the houseelves into another revolution!"  
  
"We'll never sneak out at night again!"  
  
They offered their best pleas to the Headmaster with tear-filled eyes in pleading faces as they repeated kissed the hems of his robes. The entire Hall now had its eyes on the pair, except Usagi, who was demurely sipping Pumpkin Juice.  
  
"Go for it, Albus." Sprout hissed. "We'll never get another chance like this again."  
  
"Of course?" Dumbledore said, rather helplessly. He looked taken aback when hit by two very grateful Weasley twins muttering thanks.  
  
The Hall went back to eating and the twins pounced on Usagi.  
  
Harry blinked and looked to Ron, whose jaw was resting on the table from several feet below his nose.  
  
"They seem quite taken with her." He stated the obvious as Ron tried to close his mouth.   
  
"I think they forgot that she already said she was taken." Hermione said very loudly, earning acid glares from the twins who turned to Usagi.  
  
"You're not really, are you, Usa?" Fred asked.  
  
Usagi nodded nonchalantly and took a sip of her juice. "Unfortunately, my dear mischief makers, it's my destiny to be alone forever." She stood dramatically. "Love has forsaken me." With that, she swept out of the Great Hall.  
  
"That was a nice performance, my dear." As she turned down an unfamiliar corridor, the Gray Lady of Ravenclaw fell in step beside her. Usagi gave the ghost a strange look; the Gray Lady had never spoken around her before.  
  
"Thank you. I always wanted to be in drama, but that was one of the forbidden things." She saw no reason to be secretive around the ghosts.   
  
The Gray Lady nodded. "Why don't you tell them the truth? That you don't know what would happen if you paired with a human?"  
  
Stopping dead in her tracks, Usagi turned to stare at the ghost, who had once been a very lovely woman. Her clothing was in a very old style, one that Usagi recognized but couldn't place.   
  
"How do you know what I am?" She asked softly, her voice dead, her eyes lost. The Gray Lady smiled and laid a cold hand on Usagi's shoulder.  
  
"My dear, I am the oldest ghost here. I remember the Lunarian Kingdom, and especially your mother. I served the kingdom of King Endymion the Second, father of your fiancé. I met your mother, and you bear an eerie resemblance to her. I never met you, but as I was close to Queen Terra, she confided many things to me. One of which was your rather ancestry. Etern was the most powerful of all beings ever, and it is not hard to see his blood coursing through your veins. No, my dear, you are most definitely not human."  
  
Usagi blinked. "You knew my mother?" She reached out and to her delight found that she could touch the ghost. Her fingers felt the fine silk of the Gray Lady's sleeve, and for some reason she believed the pretty apparition.   
  
The Gray Lady nodded. "I knew her. Not well."  
  
Usagi smiled. "So. You don't think I'm a monster, what I am?"  
  
"Why would I think you were a monster, my dear Queen?" The Gray Lady was startled that Usagi's hand, like all others, did not go straight through her.   
  
Usagi understood. Her face relaxed and the disturbing emptiness in her eyes was hidden. "I see. You know, but you don't know. I hold power... so much power. Why do you think Etern chose death over immortality? After so many centuries... you begin to understand more and more of the things men were never meant to understand. Things become so clear that even the most trained of minds begins to succumb to denial and finally, insanity." There was a haunted tilt to her head. "And when someone with the kind of power Etern held goes insane..."  
  
The fatal silence was enough for both of them.   
  
The Gray Lady nodded, her horror showing much too well in her expression.  
  
"That is why a Sailor Pluto is so well chosen. Unlike myself, their power is granted. They are chosen because of their extraordinary abilities to cope, more so than you can ever imagine. They can last millennia. But myself... I am not so sure."  
  
The Gray Lady sighed.   
  
"I cannot say that I know what to tell you, Queen Eternia. But might be able to offer you a piece of comfort."  
  
The pointed to a door behind Usagi.  
  
"There is are two mirrors there, which were made a couple of decades after the Alliance fell. Read the inscriptions and look into them. They will be able to tell you more than I will. But... if you ever want to listen to an old ghost ramble, dear, just ask for me."  
  
The Gray Lady faded into the wall.  
  
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Usagi turned and stared at the door. She sighed. "It can't be any worse than fighting Metalia." She reasoned, yanked open the door, and let it shut softly behind her.  
  
She never saw the figure at the end of the corridor turn and run away, shocked and very gleeful. 


	9. Sexay Severus Snape

PTWITBOAA  
~-~  
  
Chapter Nine: Sexay Severus Snape  
  
^_________^  
  
No, I haven't decided what my pairings are, IF there is going to be a pairing. But I couldn't resist this one....   
  
Yesh. I am in love with Severus Snape.  
  
BITE ME.  
  
XD  
  
  
  
  
The next morning greeted a very subdued Usagi, with dark bruises under her eyes and a sort of awkward stiffness to her step, like she was measuring with painful awareness her every movement. Her eyes were locked onto the stone floor before her and her entire stature was limp and empty.  
  
To those who did not know her, she looked like a broken rag doll. To those who did, she was lost in her own world.  
  
She walked into the Great Hall, unaware of how the entire Slytherin table hushed and looked at her when she came in and took her customary seat beside Fred And George. While the rest of the Gryffindors scooted less than discreetly away, George took his usual direct approach.   
  
"Are you a goddess? For real?"  
  
The question pulled Usagi out of her self-made reverie and she stared at him, her mouth slightly open in absolute shock. "Am I what?" She inquired calmly, hoping she had merely misheard.   
  
George looked away, his face rather pink, and it was up to Fred to repeat his question.  
  
"Are you a goddess?"  
  
The Hall had gone frighteningly silent. Even the professors were trying to look at though they were not paying the meticulous attention they were to the question, and more so to the pending answer.  
  
Usagi stared at Fred in horror, and her eyes slowly traveled around the vast room. A thousand eyes staring back at her, waiting. How did they all know?   
  
It came to her in a moment. Someone must have heard her talk with the Gray Lady. She sighed.  
  
"In what way?" She replied. "If you mean by power, then no. I am not a goddess, because in my power the gods fail to challenge me. If you mean by immortality, then no. Because even the gods die, and I do not. If you mean by my imperfections, then, once again, no. Because I am more human-- imperfect-- than the gods have ever been in that. But if you mean by perception, then, yes. I am a goddess. If you mean by sheer seductive quality, then yes, I am a goddess." Her voice rose and her hysteria became more difficult to control. "If you mean by the unsettling note that all of you will one day think I am perfect and all-powerful, that I do everything for a reason, that I work for the greater good, and that I am forced to sympathize with the Good Side when there is no such thing simply because I would suffer pain that not even your sad little spells can ever hope to duplicate otherwise, then YES! I am your goddess!"  
  
With a bang and a crash, she threw herself away from the table and left the hall at a pace that dizzied even Dumbledore. For a complete five seconds the hall was disgracefully silent, until with a cry of disgust Severus pushed back his own chair and followed the silver girl.  
  
And rightfully so. Minerva McGonagall sent a silent prayer towards the enchanted ceiling to gods she knew did not favor her as Severus dashed after their ward.  
  
Or were they her ward?  
  
Usagi was very aware a certain furious Potions Master was stampeding after her. She was also aware that his anger was only partially directed at her, but it did not make her check her speed. She turned down corridors like mad, only vaguely noting she was heading into the lower, darker parts of Hogwarts.   
  
They smelled distinctly of wood ash and cold.  
  
"Miss Tsukino, I assure you that if you do not slow down this INSTANT we shall see just how many curses your Lunarian blood is capable of absorbing!"  
  
She stopped and whirled, so suddenly that Severus's face barely had time to contort into surprise before he crashed into her.  
  
Usagi was so sure she'd put her reflexes through just about every single scenario possible and imprinted reactions to them into her very instinct.  
  
But it had never occurred to her that someday, someone might run into HER. After all, in her experience, it had always been the other way around.  
  
So of course there was a flailing of limbs that ended up with his body on top of hers, in a position that was not unfamiliar to her mind, with her thousands of memories of a thousand lives swirling in her mind.  
  
There was a few seconds of sheer stunned silence. Finally: "As fond as I am sure you are of me, Severus, the cloaking spells I have on my wings don't keep them from breaking, and I think my left one is doubled on itself. If it snaps, I'll be forced to cut off your lovely hair in retribution."  
  
She had suddenly adopted a strange, formal, and accented speech that he had heard her use only in anger. He nodded his apology and stood, and then helped her up.   
  
"You forgot yourself." He commented, before he really knew what he was saying. He glowered at himself but managed to keep his outward expression neutral and speculating.  
  
To his infinite astonishment, she nodded. Her voice returned to the almost American tone that most of them were accustomed to. "You're right. I did. I was pissed because some arrogant little prat had been eavesdropping. On a conversation I never thought I would have. I'm sorry." Without warning, Severus found himself being hugged very tightly by the petite queen. He froze, and then very slowly, he put his arms around her.  
  
The sensation was odd to him, as he had not willing touched another human for... Merlin, how long had it been? Years, definitely. And she was warm and comforting, her slim body pressing up against him. She smelled like home, like peace, some strange mix of roses, lavender, and some delicious fruit he could taste but not name. Her scent was delicious and invaded his senses until he thought he was going to drown in it, but the idea only intrigued him. Severus Snape had long since abandoned being frightened.  
  
In return, his embrace was something solid, something Usagi had not had for a while. She had readily let Kunzite cling to her into even his final moments, because human contact was one of the last things she understood, one of the last comforts she had in a world whose every deceit and lie was painfully obvious to her. She could have happily stayed in the arms of the second most feared man of Hogwarts forever, just because it kept her sane.  
  
And they clashed so wonderfully. Such pale splendor against such pure tones of darkness.   
  
What fascinated the former Death Eater the most was the sincerity of her embrace. There was nothing sexual about it, not a single thing that even hinted at an ulterior motive. He wondered what Voldemort would make of her, this little demoness from the bleakest pit of Hell with the heart of the purest angel.  
  
Severus smiled sardonically. Voldemort would probably panic. The fool had a peculiar fear of religious symbols.  
  
"Really?" Her sweet voice was muffled against his robe. "That's interesting. In my queen regalia he would probably choke on his own breath, if that were the case." She made no move to pull away from his enveloping scent of sandalwood and fire, with several other substances, probably potion ingredients, mixed in.   
  
It would have been quite hysterical to anyone who happened on them.  
  
"You really can use telepathy, can't you?" Severus asked, closing his eyes and falling further into her grasp.   
  
"Why would I lie to you about such a trivial thing?" She replied, her voice slipping back into that unfamiliar accent. "You know, this is very inappropriate. Technically, Severus, I'm a student."  
  
He grinned, an action that lifted years from his face. "Ask me if I care, Usagi." He retorted impishly. "I am as capable at history as Binns is. I know that you know that all of Lunarian blood have an aura that act as a relaxant to human senses. This is your fault, and I'll make sure Dumbledore is duly informed of it."  
  
She shook her head, making pleasant sensations run down his spine. "Oh, don't. I can only imagine what Minerva would be like if she didn't let me sit in the front row."  
  
IN spite of himself, Severus chuckled.   
  
"You're not as bad as everyone would make you out to be, Severus. You make a nice plushy. I might keep you."  
  
Severus opened his mouth to reply when a disgruntled meow made Usagi jump. The pair looked down to see Ms. Norris glaring at them with her disturbing red eyes. Reluctantly, Usagi let go of Severus and stepped away.   
  
"Good morning, Madam Norris. I trust you're well?"  
  
The cat glared and spoke in it's soft language that Severus heard only as a normal meow. "Snogging the Potions Master. My master wouldn't approve. I'll call him, I will."  
  
Usagi giggled. "Why? Are you jealous?"  
  
The cat hissed. "Oh, go on. But if the students see you, I'll laugh."  
  
Usagi glowered. "Wretched animal." She commented to Severus, as the cat vanished. "She threatened to get Filch, and then she said she'd laugh if someone else saw us. I forget that familiars usually take on the persona of their masters... or is it the other way around?"   
  
Severus didn't know what to say. He was again startled; no one had thought to inform him that the Lunarian Queen spoke the Cat language. It was a gift of birth, like Parseltongue and the harsh language she had used with the monster in the Forbidden Forest.  
  
"Your Majesty, exactly how many languages can you speak?" He asked suddenly.  
  
She blinked and hesitated, thinking. "I don't believe there is one that I can't speak. Several run in my blood, but whatever doesn't exist there I can use the ginzuishou to help me. Why? Do you need me to speak to someone?"  
  
Severus shook his head. "What about Mermish and Troll? French? Latin?"  
  
Usagi grinned. "The important human languages have been pounded into my head manually, as about a hundred humanoid creatures. The rest I can learn in five seconds. The natural magic of Lunarians isn't restricted like humans." She leant against the wall, suddenly very tired. "That is why is it so dangerous for us to have more than one heir. And we must create the heir ourselves, and raise it ourselves, allowing no other to influence it unless we truly trust them. It is a perilous thing, to grant this kind of magic to a person."   
  
She blinked again, wondering why she had just told one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Lunarian lineage to a man she knew might one day give it away under the implement of severe pain.  
  
She closed her eyes. "Oh, well. It's not like I'll need an heir anyway, to raise. So that's a useless secret. When the existence of the universe depends on your undying, irremovable soul, it doesn't look like you're going to kick the bucket anytime soon. Even if your counterpart can."  
  
A scene of blood-covered chaos took her vision for a second, but it was enough for her back to tense and her eyes to close, her breath caught.  
  
Severus stared at her. "What's wrong?"  
  
"Absolutely nothing." She snapped, and disappeared, even though Severus knew as well as anyone it was impossible to Apparate or Disapparate in Hogwarts.  
  
****  
  
The angel that appeared on the top of the Astrology tower seconds later only slightly resembled Usagi Tsukino, and that was only in the long, silver hair that caught the wind. The fact that a sheer violet aura had decided to take up residence around her and her birthmark shone gold might have had a little credit in altering her appearance, but perhaps most of the blame went to the huge wings, no longer cloaked, that spread out behind her to their fullest extent, of the purest white feathers.   
  
Her robes had been changed into the flowing navy-purple gown of Eternia, and her feet were bare. She scanned the distances in the morning sun and her silver eyes narrowed and her face twisted into an expression that would have brought any man who thought he had sinned but once in his life to his knees to plead for mercy.  
  
She made a quick note of the details and then stormed down from the tower. The halls were clear, for Breakfast had not yet ended, and just as well, because any student who would have gotten in her way would have been rudely shoved aside.  
  
She came into the hall with a flurry of feathers. She didn't care, this time, that people were staring at her. She was in battle costume and mindset, and nothing would deter her. She stopped short of the Head Table, her expression cold as she noted that only Severus was absent: probably still have in the corridor, just realizing she wasn't coming back.  
  
"Voldemort is advancing on Hogwarts from Hogsmeade with many people in strange masks behind him." She said, low enough so that only a few students heard. "I can feel his Dementors and he has a vast assortment of beasts with him. I can deal with the dogs and the dragons he has, but I can't help anymore than that. Perhaps you should ready yourself for battle."  
  
Dumbledore leapt to his feet.  
  
**** 


	10. Yarnspinner

PTWITBOAA  
Chapter 10  
"Yarnspinner"  
by Black Beyond  
--------  
  
  
  
Usagi watched Voldemort's ranks hesitate after she successful dispatched their army of creatures. Even the vampires had obeyed her order to retreat, something she had not expected. It seemed that Voldemort hadn't expected it either. Armed with only his Dementors and his Death Eaters, she could see the that his gait had grown all that less confident. As the professors stood ready before the gates of Hogwarts, Usagi turned in midair and flew higher to gaze upon the chaos of wood splinters and blood that was left of Hogsmeade.   
  
"Ready yourselves!" She shouted down. "He still has forced to be reckoned with! I'll keep them from passing you." She had, after all, proclaimed the Potter boy as her ward. It was her duty and now her obligation to protect him. It was justified by the laws.  
  
"And such laws. You should not say must to princes." She muttered, watching as three familiar shapes appeared at the top of the astronomy tower. She cursed very darkly as she recognized the trio from Gryffindor, come to watch battle and hence putting themselves in a direct line of danger. She saw Voldemort spot them as well, but ripping into his mind she saw he thought them more aurors, standing from a vantage point.  
  
This was even more. He ordered a small group of Death Eaters to aim for them, to get them down. Usagi but on a burst of speed and just managed to hit the three students with her own body, knocking them down as several killing curses went green over their heads.  
  
"Fools! You've put yourselves in such danger! Voldemort is not blind!" She kept her wings open, a silver shield against the curses of Death Eaters. It would take the dark lord only a few seconds, she knew, to realize who was worthy enough of Usagi's protection, and then the real curses would start.  
  
She bit her lip anxiously and stared at the three students. "What are you waiting for? Get inside the castle! Come with me!" She threw open the door that they had come through and hurried them down it, slamming it just as she heard footsteps touch. Death Eaters on brooms or levitating spells, she knew. Using her own brand of magic, she secured the door and concentrated on Severus's mind.  
  
-I have to save the Potter boy from his own foolishness. There are enemies on the roof, but they won't get in this way. You have no cover in the sky for a while.-  
  
She heard his curse in reply and could only agree.   
  
"Stay close." She said aloud, to her new charges. "They won't come through that door, but there is no telling what dangers might show themselves." She carefully put up her barriers around herself and Ron nearly shouted when the magnificent queen suddenly became a mousy little girl... she looked familiar, maybe a first year.  
  
"Come on, then." Her commanding voice hadn't changed. "We'll be safer if I don't attract attention."  
  
"Uhm... Usagi?" Hermione whispered tentatively, unsure of how to address the girl who was currently leading her down corridors she had never seen before.   
  
"What is it?" Usagi was preoccupied and paranoid, turning corners at dizzying speeds, not caring that the three students panted to catch up. She paused as the corridor branched into seven before choosing one quickly and resuming her impossible pace.  
  
"Where are you taking us?"  
  
Usagi shook her head. -Somewhere safe. I don't know who to trust- She spoke to their minds in a hurried manner. Four more turns and she came to a screeching stop in front of a door. Hesitating only long enough for Ron to open his mouth to ask what the matter was, she flung it open and all but shoved them inside before dashing in herself just as footsteps sounded in the corridor. She locked it with her most powerful magic and then sighed.  
  
As Usagi sank against the door in relief, the other three slowly caught their breath and began to look around. It was a small room, maybe twelve feet by twelve, with gray stone walls and nothing to relieve it except the two mirrors, opposite one another at either sides of the room, and almost exactly the same except one was silver and the other jade.  
  
Harry recognized one. "That's the Mirror of Erised!" He pointed to the silver one. Hermione stepped around to look into the jade one, but Usagi's sharp voice made her freeze.  
  
"Don't!" There was a haunted tone underneath the warning. "You might not want to do that, Hermione. That is the Mirror of Treah. It shows you what you really are inside."  
  
"How do you know?" Ron asked boldly.  
  
"Because I had the distinct pleasure of looking in it, Mr. Weasley!" Usagi snapped, and then closed her eyes when Ron drew back, startled. "I'm sorry. I'm a little at edge. I didn't mean to be so rude."  
  
"How long are we going to be in here?" Hermione asked, before Ron could dig himself further into a hole.  
  
"Until Severus comes to retrieve us." Usagi muttered. "One word about him and I'll save Voldemort the trouble."  
  
Harry grinned. "Do you fancy him?" He asked, taking a seat beside her, the stone sending a chill down his back.  
  
Usagi snorted. "If I did, it wouldn't help either of us. I'm a MONSTER, Harry, and you need to understand that. If my blood and the blood of a human was crossed, the chances of it being one huge genetic freak of a beast are more likely than not. So it doesn't matter if I like Severus. Because we both know nothing could come of it."  
  
Ron raised his hands in surrender and looked at Hermione hopelessly. He knew better than to get involved in that kind of thing. Experience was the best teacher.  
  
"What did you see in the mirror?" Hermione fumbled for a subject change and floundered with the question that she found rather appalling the second Usagi looked up to glare at her. But the harsh look in Usagi's eyes faded to something that Hermione couldn't identify.  
  
"Fine. We'll have storytime. But to understand what I saw in the mirror, you're going to have to get a little bit of background history. I'm from another dimension. In this dimension, there is another Usagi Tsukino who hasn't awoken to her powers yet. She is innocent and sweet, blonde, and as pure as you get. But in my dimension, when I was about ten, a powerful sorceress bitch took over the world. Happy times, let me tell you.   
  
"But three years after that, when Beryl the Bitch was in her prime, I was awoken to my powers as a magical warrior by one naïve fool of a cat. We fought, lost, won, blah. We got sick of that and invaded her fortress. I sent my fellow warriors back to safety and took Beryl's Mistress head on. I destroyed that plane entirely, and fully intended to die. But I didn't. And somehow, my most powerful weapon got it into its crazy little head to send me to a third dimension where Beryl invaded AFTER Usagi Tsukino had been given her powers.   
  
"I spent a lot of time there, playing around. I shared Usagi's body with her own mind, and that was fine. Until Luna decided that if the war went on much longer, the entire place would blow. So we teleported into Beryl's plane and went looking for her.  
  
"That's when the shit hit the fan...."  
  
~-~  
  
  
Sailormoon looked around, nervous. The place was too familiar to her, the harsh, metallic scent of blood permeating the very air around her. It was the smell she would forever associate with Metalia: the scent of rancid and fresh lifeblood mixing together in the wind.  
  
The other senshi looked sick to their stomach, but Sailormoon was enjoying her sense of relief that they had avoided the maze of caves that haunted her nightmares from before. She didn't see Zoisite anywhere, nor any youma. Actually, she couldn't see much of anything.  
  
"Something isn't right." Mars whispered, just as Sailormoon heard the familiar whistle of something flying through the air.  
  
"Get DOWN!" She screamed, and kissed the floor hard just as the twangs of a thousand bows filled her sensitive ears in the inky darkness. She heard Mercury's voice scream in anguish and the sound of bodies hitting the floor. Sailormoon cursed inwardly and wondered how many had followed her command in time.  
  
To her left, a torch flared with a sudden violet flame, and then another, and another, until the entire cavern was lit with varying shades of purple and orange.   
  
"It was a trap." Uranus's voice, behind her, followed by a string of very explicit curses from Venus.  
  
"So... Kunzite. I hadn't really expected you to have had the balls to betray me." Sailormoon's eyes adjusted to the light quickly and she paled to find that she had teleported directly into the center of Beryl's throne room. Surrounded by hundreds of nasty, burlesque youma, all armed with bows, swords, and claws, she could feel the enthusiasm of the senshi drain away.  
  
"Milady, I live only to make your life as miserable as I can possible achieve." Kunzite replied, from his prone position on the floor. Beryl made a rude comment in reply about Kunzite's ancestry, but Sailormoon shook her head and slowly stood up.  
  
"This is futile, Beryl." She managed the confidence of one who had already won, when inside she was sobbing from the suicidal situation she had put the senshi into. "You can't kill me. It's impossible. And you have nothing to gain from killing the senshi, as they will only return. There's still a way to stop this. You don't even have to surrender. Just see that Earth isn't worth it. There are better planets to take over."  
  
Zoisite, from his comfortable seat in midair, eyed his queen questionably. But they were in Metalia's stronghold, where Her influence was at its strongest. Beryl stood and shook her head, smirking.  
  
"You will not work your Lunarian sorcery upon me here, my pathetic little princess! No, you will watch your senshi have their souls ripped from them and placed into the special holding capsules my queen has made for them. They will not come back! And as for you... you will see that there are so many things worse than death..." Beryl laughed shrilly, on an octave that, if she had dared, would have made Sailormoon hold her ears.  
  
But she only nodded and turned to survey the damage. No one was dead yet, but there was an arrow sticking out of Mercury's side and Tuxedo Kamen was busy trying to extract one from his thigh. Neptune was whispering that he should be extremely happy it hadn't gone an inch higher and two to the left while she tried to help under the glare of Uranus.  
  
Venus gave her a reassuring smile as she lent Mars her hand to pull the fire senshi to her feet. Jupiter was already up and inspecting Mercury's wound. Pluto gave her a grim stare, and Sailormoon sighed. Kunzite cocked his head slightly but made no giveaway comment.  
  
She wished violently that Saturn was there.  
  
"What? No more pretty speeches intertwined with your seductive Lunarian words?" Beryl taunted, her eyes flashing blood.   
  
"No, Beryl. No more pretty speeches." She said wearily.  
  
-Woah. What the FUCK are you doing?!-  
  
"They never seem to work." Sailormoon continued, blocking the real Usagi's voice from her mind. "This time, I'm going to tell you the truth, but first, I need to deal with something. Could you have patience for a mere second?" She slowly raised on of her hands in the air so that no youma was startled and snapped her fingers once.  
  
Zoisite nearly fell out the air when every youma in the room vanished. They simply blinked out of existence so softly that it took a moment to realize it. Beryl started, and the first vestiges of fear tickled the edges of her mind.   
  
"I know you have more, but that makes me feel better for the moment." Sailormoon smiled blankly. "Now, let me say one word. I am not Sailormoon. I am not whoever you think I am or have been led to believe. I am not Princess Serenity, and I am not stupid. I am the Daughter of Etern. With the same snap of my fingers it took to kill half of your remaining army, I could have Metalia dead. That is the truth. But what is also the truth is that I can't do that. If you decide to try and rip the souls from the senshi, that's your business. But I have only one more thing to say before you do this."  
  
Beryl glowered. "What's that?"  
  
"The senshi have been powering up while you were listening to me babble." Sailormoon smirked and then hit the floor again just as Venus called out the words of magic.  
  
"Sailor Planet Attack!"  
  
Instead of the attack heading for Beryl, as expected, Zoisite found himself screaming in torment as he was dissolved into dust by the power of the attack. The doors to the throne room as more youma burst in, more than had been there before.  
  
Beryl, her face contorted by the sheer amount of wrath in her head, screeched at them the command to attack. The army swarmed the senshi, but not before the outer duo, working as perfectly as the wind and the waves had ever danced, raced for her neck, a small tsunami gathering in Neptune's fingers while Uranus brandished her Space Sword, a blazing beam of energy.   
  
"Venus Crescent Beam Shatter!" Venus screamed, turning back to her own problems. She heard Mars and Jupiter sound their battle cries and moved quickly to protect the wounded Mercury. Tuxedo Kamen joined her, slashing out with the razor edge of his cane while hurling roses with his other hand. Mercury smiled before jumping high and screaming out the words that deal a good deal of youma frozen in ice.  
  
"Sailormoon! Watch your back!" Kunzite shouted, as he gathered fistfuls of ki to throw at the youma that had once fearfully answered to his every whim. Sailormoon took out her own sword gracefully and began to cut through the youma swiftly.  
  
"No...." Metalia's soft whisper twisted through the battle like a foul stench. All at once, forty youma turned to Sailormoon and leapt upon her all at once, knocking her weapon from her hand as the blade of the Space Sword bit into the inviting flesh of Beryl's back. Mars screamed and threw her scrolls at the youma who had attacked her queen. Kunzite gasped and quickly began hacking at the youma who tried to go for Mars' own back.  
  
"Ginzuishou!" Sailormoon yelled, gasping for air as she fought against the never ending barrage of slashes and hits that tore her fuku apart and ripped her ivory flesh.   
  
The resulting explosion threw them all away and filled the room with an intense, bright light. It died away slowly, reluctantly, and when it did, the occupants of the dark dimension found themselves looking at two people, each Usagi Tsukino.  
  
One, one with golden hair and wearing the unmarred, old uniform of Sailormoon, stumbled and blinked, holding the Crescent Moon Wand in her gloved hand, and was very disorientated.  
  
The other stood tall and proud, her silver-white hair streaming around her naked, torn body, blood that was both hers and not hers dripping in rivulets down the milky curves of her body. She grasped a staff and looked exhausted, the light of the ginzuishou still around her. Uranus paused over the corpse of Beryl to stare.  
  
"She looks like the old queen." The words left her mouth before she could think them and Uranus wasn't entirely sure what they meant.  
  
"I need to go." The silver Usagi whispered, and a portal opened beneath her. "You should know how to win, Sailormoon."  
  
With a howl of fury, Metalia sent the youma after her as she dropped out of sight.   
  
~-~  
  
Review! Or I quit! ^_^ 


	11. Harrychan no neko!

Purging  
Black Beyond  
black_beyond@hotmail.com  
Harry-chan no neko!  
-----  
  
^_______________^  
  
And as for a certain e-mail request I received--- your wish is granted! Harry-chan  
no neko, at your service! ^_^!!  
  
AS for someone's continued nagging about Severus/Usagi.... I might write a later  
fic with this pairing, but I doubt I'll match Usagi with anyone as a permenant   
thing. She has to go home sometime, doesn't she? And I don't think Dumbledore   
would love me very much for stealing his Potions Master...  
  
But don't loose faith in me, my romantics! I will keep you quite satisified,   
I think...  
  
^_^  
  
Who can resist a Harry-chan no neko, anyway? ;)  
  
  
  
  
  
Usagi snorted. "After that, I appeared here. And that stupid youma attacked me.   
Et cetera. But that's okay. What does that have to do with what I saw in the   
Mirror of Treah?"  
  
Ron nodded. "That would be the Sixty-four thousand dollar question, yeah."  
  
Usagi glared at him and Ron suddenly found himself on his heads, holding his   
head while a sharp, twisting agony seared through his temples, filling his   
vision with a blistering white nothing while images danced through his head.   
Unconsciously he tried to hold onto them out of pure instinct.  
  
--  
"Mommy, why doesn't Saruko come back to school? I miss her!" He was a cheerful,   
confused ten year old girl, very naïve and sweet, looking up at a woman who had   
the kind smile he associated with his mother. He saw the tears behind it, but the girl he was didn't.  
  
"Oh, Usagi-chan. Saruko will never come back to school, I'm sorry honey. You   
see, since Her Majesty the-- since Beryl's army won, she has... she has been   
sending people away forever. They won't come back."  
  
Ron felt a frigid realization cut through the girl he was. "Is the bad lady the   
teachers and the newsmen talking about *killing* people, Mommy?"  
  
--  
  
He saw himself as a beautiful woman, with long silver hair and uncompromising   
gray eyes looking anxiously into a mirror. He felt the woman-- himself-- jump   
back as his image wavered in a violet, swirling mass. As it shifted, he found   
himself looking at the elegant frame and with a shock realized it was the   
mirror of Treah he was looking at, as Usagi. He felt dizzy, like something was   
itching his mind.  
  
His eyes went back to the mirror and he jumped again, startled to find that he   
was staring into the eyes of a saturnine, regal woman who looked very much like Usagi.  
  
"Mommy?" He heard himself ask in a language he did not know.   
  
"Silly little daughter.... you should know that a single image cannot show what   
you are. On your dreams I showed you what the Mirror of Treah will never be   
powerful enough to show."  
  
An image of a universe full of stars of all shapes and colors, as magnificent as   
he would never see, flitted briefly into his head, a memory of a memory, lasting   
only long enough for him to notice that at the very center glowed the only white   
star.  
  
Horror that he did not understand dawned. And then the thoughts that were   
Usagi's came with it.  
  
He-- she-- was everything.  
  
"Mother, I am not... I can not... this is too... but..." Usagi tried to say so   
many things, but the moment she started each one, she knew it was a lie.  
--  
He was sitting at a table, long streamers of golden hair polling out across the   
counter. He felt miserable, and like a slab of quivering antelope in front of a   
pissed off lioness. Two men were approaching him from behind, he knew, facing   
two girls that were his friends that he did not know.  
  
They took seats without asking and Ron added his own annoyance to Usagi's.  
  
"What do you want *now*, Mamoru-san?" He asked, when what he really wanted to do  
was test the strength of his delicate fist against the man with the dark hair's   
face. A smirk was what he got in reply, and was deeply disturbed when his---  
her?-- stomach did flip-flops and he fought down a sigh. He was even more   
perturbed to find that he was concentrated very hard on the beauty of the man's   
blue eyes.  
  
"To prove to Motoki it was you at the hospital." Mamoru replied casually. Images   
of a wound flashed though Ron's mind, and his wariness grew. But getting upset   
would blow their carefully placed cover.  
  
He really was confused.  
  
"Great. Listen to me. Go away." He mumbled into the table, wishing desperately   
to kiss Mamoru's lips and kill him all at the same time.  
  
"Come on, Odango Atama."   
  
"What. Did. You. Call. Me?" He sat up, covering a blush with a glare and hoping   
his red cheeks were mistaken for anger.  
  
"Odango Atama. Because of your hair." He grinned.  
--  
  
He was in the forest, surrounded by dark trees and shadows that lurked but   
dared not venture near, and he had all of five seconds before it hit.  
  
Ten thousand million thoughts and emotions and sensations from seven billion   
different people flying through his mind. He caught snips here and there, some   
disgusting, some strange, some beautiful.   
  
He screamed inside his head, because Usagi did not scream. She stood in silent   
contemplation, patiently scanning through the havoc. But Ron couldn't take it.   
He screamed again and again and thought he was going to die from the overload.  
--  
  
And then he was back, in his own quiet mind and a body he could control. After   
he'd regained his breath, a look around told him that Harry and Hermione were in   
equally rough states, and that Usagi was posed thoughtfully, chewing on her   
bottom lip.  
  
"You know, I really hate that spell. I don't think I'll use it again.... not   
enough control over what the person sees. I just intended to show you what I   
saw, but no... it skips around... and doesn't even show you the entire memory.   
Stupid Spell-caster... can't you make your spells perfect?" She sighed. "Okay.   
Anyway-- basically what you see in the mirror is what you are... and what you   
cannot be...."  
  
Hermione frowned. "So why don't you want us to look?"  
  
But Harry had figured it out. "Because it shows death. Our deaths. You don't   
want us to see our deaths."  
  
Ron spoke before Usagi could answer. "What was that-- thing--- things-- that we   
saw? Just before we came back? It was insane."  
  
Usagi laughed harshly. "Welcome to my world, Ronald Weasley." She smiled a bit   
too brightly. "Indeed. Welcome to the world that began the moment Metalia's   
lifeblood ran over my hands and the copper-sweet drops fell into my mouth and   
the time streams exploded in my head as her final curse." She closed her eyes.   
"You want to be so powerful, Eternia? You want to be the beautiful, wise queen   
your mother supposedly was? Fine. Have her wisdom. She took it by choice and now   
I thrust it upon you so you have another reason to curse my name." Usagi's  
mimicking, furious hiss fell heavy on their ears.  
  
"She gave it to me as she died, so it's a powerful spell. At that moment, she   
probably could have had just about anything. She was a very powerful sorceress   
and the release of all her magick granted her enough power to take even me with  
her. But you know what? She was a true, malicious, and brilliant woman to the   
end. Instead I have every thought of every single soul in my head, every   
possible outcome of any situation of any type of any kind, and every step I   
take there is an explosion in my head of the million things that have already   
happened in that spot. I could walk a million years and still not see everything   
in my head. It's my worst curse yet."  
  
Harry narrowed his eyes. "You see everything?" It was frightening. He'd led a   
close life.  
  
Usagi laughed. "Yeah. And until recently the curse covered not being able to   
talk about it or share what I saw. Not even to warn people. But I managed, at   
least, to break that geis. I think she added it after the initial curse, as a   
nasty afterthought. So it was easier to break, although, since I only have   
about thirty accumulated years of experience, it was kind of hard. But the part   
where she left a rift in the lining of the communication charm was rather   
obvious..." Her voice lowered and her eyes glazed over and she began to speak   
more to herself than to her three new charges.  
  
"She likes to talk." Hermione noted.   
  
"Probably to keep herself sane." Ron replied. "Did you feel your head start to   
pound? And it was only for half a second. If she was see everything everyone   
thinks... god, I'd hate to be her at a kinky sex convention."  
  
Even Hermione smiled a little. "Ron! That's not polite. She's a Queen."  
  
"So? She's our age, too. Shove off." Ron defended himself.  
  
Harry looked over at Usagi. She was hugging herself tightly, her lips moving   
silently as she argued some moot point to herself, Her gray eyes almost black   
in her reverie. He might have been worried except some part of him knew that   
this strange lady wouldn't let anyone in her care die if she herself had to die   
to accomplish it.  
  
He felt a twinge of anger, which disappeared as soon as it had come. If she   
had half the power that everyone acted like she had, why didn't she just kill   
Voldemort and save the lot of them the trouble?  
  
"Because I am not from this universe and it could possibly do more harm than   
good, Harry Potter. I haven't the patience yet to sort out these blasted   
thoughts, but I know better. I won't do it. It's not my destiny."  
  
It took him a moment to realize that Ron and Hermione hadn't heard; the voice   
had been inside his head.  
  
"Don't look so surprised, Harry. Surely you know that impossible was not   
included in my vocabulary lessons as a Lunarian blueblood." There it was, that   
tone of self-mocking again. He was beginning to wonder, very quietly, if the   
girl had problems.   
  
She apparently hadn't caught the thought. Or at least, she didn't yell at him.  
  
"I'm weak, am I?" Hermione shouted at Ron. Harry turned and from behind him he  
felt Usagi stir. "Well, Mr. Strong and Bastardly, let's see you wrack up the   
guts to do this!"  
  
Hermione stomped over to the mirror and looked directly into it. What Harry   
found rather fascinating before his attention was drawn in completely by the   
play of emotions on Hermione's face was the remark that Usagi didn't lift a   
finger to stop Hermione, not even after the warning.  
  
Hermione's face went from a look of shocked, startled realization to mute   
disbelief. Slowly it became one of horror, and then, even more slowly, of   
sullen-- and perhaps satisfactory?-- acceptance.  
  
"I suppose I've always known." She whispered shakily, after several moments of   
pregnant silence.   
  
Usagi smiled warmly. "You should always trust her, Harry. And never betray her   
yourself. She's brave."  
  
Harry wanted to ask what his friend had seen, but when Hermione walked quietly   
to the corner furthest from them and slid down the wall to bury her face in her  
knees, sitting in quiet silence, he knew better than to press the subject.  
  
Ron, however, persisted. Opening his mouth to interrogate Hermione, he was   
surprised to find a soft, pale palm keeping him from speaking as it covered the   
gap in his face. He gasped in indignation and the scent of sandalwood and   
something very sweet and tantalizing overwhelmed him, driving him speechless as   
he involuntarily lapsed into a quiet reverie.  
  
He snapped out of it twice as quickly and glared at the petite queen, surprised   
to find she was only as tall as he. How had she always seemed so much taller?  
  
Now, she seemed almost meek, the inferno of her eyes a dull roar. She shook her   
head. "No, Ron." She murmured softly, seeming almost like a normal girl. Ron   
nodded, and turned away.  
  
"If any of us were good at transfiguration, we could have chess. But..." Harry   
was trying to think of a way to keep the peace in the small room, and   
floundering.  
  
Usagi smiled, and then there was a card table, with a complete wizarding chess   
set. Usagi stared at it and smiled. "I don't think Professor Dumbledore will   
mind very much." She added mildly. "I'm not very good at transfiguring new   
magical objects yet, so I just borrowed his." Chairs appeared, four of them,   
suspiciously resembling those from Trelawney's classroom. Usagi glared at one   
until it had posed in front of the Mirror of Erised and then one by one, she   
moved the others, two on either side of the table and one near Hermione.  
  
Wordlessly, Harry took his seat behind the black pieces, and Ron grudgedly took   
the white and made his first move. Usagi smiled happily jumped into her chair,   
sprawling out in it comfortably. She scooted just a little closer to the mirror   
and grinned, opening her hand for a black crayon to appear there. She began to   
draw on the surface of the mirror, humming a child's nursery rhyme under her   
breath.   
  
The two boys shot her strange looks as Ron systematically began to beat Harry.   
It was a short game, with Ron massacring Harry. As usual. As Harry set up the   
gentle, polite pieces up for another game, Ron's eyes went to Usagi, still   
happily marking away on the mirror of Erised and then to Hermione, who was   
either asleep or seriously lost in thought.   
  
"We're locked in with the two most beautiful girls in Hogwarts and we're playing   
CHESS." He grumbled, moving his pawn.   
  
"That's because Snape could bash in here any time, and because Hermione doesn't   
like either of us that way, and because if we tried anything with Usagi, Snape   
would probably kill us if she didn't." Harry reasoned, and tried to block the   
pawn with one of his own.  
  
Ron moved his bishop carefully. "Eh. It'd be worth it."  
  
His friend shook his head sympathetically in reply. "Not for what Snape could do  
to us, mate, but for what Usagi might. She doesn't have to worry about the   
Ministry or Dumbledore, remember?"  
  
"True, that." Ron nodded and moved his bishop again. "Checkmate."  
  
Harry cursed. "Three moves, this time?" He shook his head.  
  
Ron smirked smugly. "Yup."  
  
Nine games later with Ron winning 11-0, Hermione finally stirred, but only to  
climb into her chair, and then to scoot it so that she could see what Usagi   
was drawing. A slight smile lit up her eyes and Usagi made a crayon for her,   
too. Soon both of them were silently doodling away.  
  
After two more games, each time Ron killing off Harry's King faster than the   
last until the polite old gentlemen threw down his crown and told Harry in no   
uncertain terms that he was horrible at chess.  
  
Harry grinned. "And I bet you're bad at Quidditch."   
  
Ron's eyes traveled over to the two girls, and he grimaced. "What the hell are   
they drawing that's so entertaining?"   
  
"Don't ask." Harry advised wisely, but didn't stop Ron when he got up and moved   
closer. In fact, he followed.   
  
So when he and Ron were lifted into the air and suddenly found the room a lot   
bigger than it had been before, Harry really couldn't say he was that surprised.   
But he did get a look at the picture they were drawing-- it was of a man who   
strongly resembled Snape and another who strongly resembled Black holding hands   
beside a tree.  
  
If it hadn't had been so utterly repulsive to his mind, Harry might have found   
it funny.  
  
He opened his mouth to protest that Sirius would never hold Snape's hand, except   
he said "Merrrow!" instead. Beside him he could hear Ron spitting and yowling   
and looked down at himself.  
  
He tried to ask, "Where did all this fur come from?" but it came out as,   
"Merrrrrrrroooww?"  
  
Met with Usagi's grinning gray eyes, he felt the dawning certainly that he was,   
in fact, screwed.  
  
"Ooooooh. See the pretty kitty cats, Hermione? Aren't they so cuuuutttteeee?"  
  
Ron meowed in desperation as Hermione grabbed him by the scruff of his orange   
neck, smirking.  
  
------  
  
^_______^ NEKO NO KAWAII! *cuddles Harry the Kitten and Ron the Kitten* Mine! MINE! 


	12. Tokyoian Dreams

Voldemort sighed heavily and weighed the wand in his hand almost   
judgmentally, his eyes almost completely closed in grave   
contemplation of the events of the previous few hours. In one mighty,  
unjust blow, he had lost almost his entire army and not a scratch   
had been laid on the Potter boy or Albus Dumbledore. The double   
attack on Hogwarts and the Ministry had gone extremely awry, thanks   
to the fact that that stupid moon twit had placed some strange kind   
of protection over the school. It had taken him too long to rip a   
hole into it, time that allowed her to hide Potter well. He had   
also lost one of his best-- if he had ever had the man at all.  
  
Severus Snape had fought valiantly against him. Voldemort could see,  
in Severus's eyes, the love that the Potions Master now bore with   
him, a devotion that had arrived so quickly that Voldemort knew the   
object of that affection could only be the Lunarian sorceress.  
  
He had caught a glimpse of her as she soared overhead, racing for   
the tower. He would have been lying to himself if he said that his   
heart-- or whatever he had in place of it-- had plummeted with the   
half-hysterical thought that she was an avenging angel of god.   
  
Perhaps she had been. His best Death Eaters kidnapped, Wormtail   
among them, Voldemort knew he would soon be dealing with Sirius   
Black, a duelist to make him just a bit more nervous. The moment   
they verified the unconscious pig of a man, Black would be pardoned   
and come out of hiding, adding points for the side of Good.   
  
Points he could not afford to face right now.  
  
"She will pay for this..." The image of her went through his mind   
again, and his fingers clenched so tightly around his wand it was a   
wonder it didn't snap from the tension. The vision of her, silver   
and shining, returned unbidden to his minds eyes and a low growl   
rose in his throat.  
  
Damn her for being beautiful. Damn her. Damn her for having what he   
couldn't.  
  
He nodded softly to himself, and summoned his remaining death   
eaters. A friend's dark advice was murmured into his unhearing ears   
and a morbid smile crept onto his face.  
  
The moon bitch would pay.  
  
-------------  
  
  
Severus limped down the hallway as dignified as he could, following   
the careful mental map that Usagi had placed into his head so   
quickly before she had completed the wards on the small prison she'd   
set up. He wondered, in some part of his head, how she'd managed to   
locate the place; it was a very small room in the very center of one   
of the lowest levels on the castle, a place that Dumbledore had once   
used to contain a certain werewolf while the Shrieking Shack was   
being completed. It had thick, thick walls on all sides and was   
virtually impregnable if the spell holding the door was good.  
  
Hand it to a Lunarian to find the best place to hide.   
  
Severus knocked lightly on the door and spoke the password she had   
given him, wondering about the significance of "Tuxedo-Kamen-sama"   
in her native tongue while he was secretly paranoid it was a joke at   
his expense.  
  
The door creaked open and he entered nervously and shut the door   
behind him and paused.  
  
One of his eyebrows arched. "I thought that Potter and Weasley were   
here too, Your Majesty." He commented slowly, his eyes traveling   
over two giddy females and two very agitated little kittens.  
  
Usagi smiled her best smile, one that hit him like a sledgehammer   
to the stomach. "Now, my dear Professor..." She purred, blinking   
innocently. "I have no idea what you might be talking about... of   
course, these kittens are lovely, aren't they?" She kissed the   
orange one on it's nose and the poor thing melted out of her hands   
and began bouncing around.  
  
To his credentials, it only took him a few seconds to realize what   
had happened, and had he been a character in one of the those muggle  
anime, he would have sweatdropped immensely. "You're not allowed   
to transfigure students, Usagi."  
  
The queen shrugged and cuddled Harry close to her bosom, and Severus   
suddenly discovered that he really, really wanted to be the Boy Who   
Lived. "Anyway, Severus, since the best of the threat is over, I   
think we can leave the sanctuary of this room. I couldn't see   
much-- I've been keeping a close watch on the wards on the door. Is   
everyone reasonably okay? I can feel Voldemort's anger-- it's quite   
strong-- so I know that we did well."  
  
Severus blinked at the regal tone that she had suddenly adopted,   
perfect and accented with the sexual and seductive tones of her   
Lunarian heritage. Hermione seemed a bit disorientated by it as   
well, standing with Ron in her arms.   
  
"Yes, Your Majesty. There were very few causalities, mostly on   
their forces. And yes, Dumbledore would like to see you. And if you   
would transfigure them back into humans..."  
  
Usagi blinked and was suddenly holding a very human Harry, whom she   
released. Ron hit the floor with a yelp and a crash and Usagi   
sighed.   
  
"Very well. Take care of them."  
  
She disappeared and the door of the room swung open.   
  
"It's impossible to Apparate on school grounds." Hermione muttered   
under her breath and helped Ron to his feet.   
  
"Not for her."  
  
~-~  
  
  
Usagi reappeared very far away from Hogwarts. It was in a very   
familiar place, too. She looked around, her silvery gown swinging   
around her ankles and her eyes slowly traveled to her sudden change   
of clothing, her black robes replaced by the silver gown she had   
seen her mother wear so often, minus a white bow and plus a thick   
navy blue stripe across her breasts, her feet bare and her hair, so   
long and such a pure, dazzling white, moving softly in the winds of   
Tokyo.  
  
Her home, Tokyo.  
  
Far from being pleased, a violent oath left her lips, calling the   
attention of the children playing Frisbee close-by to turn and   
stare, mostly at the huge, faintly-tinted butterfly wings of the   
angel, her forehead's insignia glowing in the sunlight.  
  
"MAGIIM!" She called out, her staff appearing in her hands only to  
be slammed against the ground in an explosion of power. "THIS IS   
THE LAST STRAW! SHOW YOURSELF!" Her words were loud and deep, coming   
from deep within her throat as she shouted them, light spiraling   
from the very ground around her, forming a loose dorm that shifted   
and changed in the wind.  
  
A shadow, formless and quite black, appeared not all of three yards   
away, pitch in spite of the luminance. "You finally called me, Your   
Supremeness?"  
  
She glowered at it and leveled her staff. "This has gone on far   
enough. Are you suicidal or just really stupid?"  
  
It laughed, and the children ran. "One might call me both. But I   
have no true quarrel with you-- I act upon the order of the Ary   
Council. They told me to move you back into your true world. I   
have done with."  
  
She exploded. "By twisting the threads of several other dimensions   
in the process! You ought to be killed!"  
  
"That I ought, my beautiful myth. But now you are home. Doesn't that   
make you happy? You have helped in those dimensions, have you not?   
And you have left them before receiving bad news. You should be   
quite happy... unless you retain the human emotion of curiosity...   
and that would be a misfortune, wouldn't it?"  
  
Usagi's anger deflated as a sense of wary suspicion descended upon   
her and she paused, remembering a half-forgotten warning of riddles   
and lies. "Why would that be a misfortune?"  
  
It smirked at her. "Because that would mean that perhaps, you were   
still a little human. And everyone knows that that means!"  
  
It vanished.   
  
Usagi cursed loudly, and quickly threw several cloaking spells over   
herself, hiding her wings and her luminance the best she could. She   
could do nothing at the moment about her gown, her bare feet, or her   
hair, and nor did she feel the desire to. Her senses reached out and  
touched the magical auras and was a little shocked to find that   
Metalica had just died. She had been gone from her world only a few   
days.  
  
She sighed and leant on her staff a little.  
  
"I'm going to kill that Magiim..." She muttered, and began to walk   
out of the park. It took her all of thirty seconds to find the road   
she wanted and headed for the Arcade, the mark on her forehead   
glowing. People, scorned and cynical, stopped to stare at her as   
she walked past, as regal as their queen had never been, and Usagi   
found herself muffling a giggle as the crowds of Downtown Juuban   
parted for her, a goddess who, simply hours ago here, had been a   
silly little schoolgirl, a face in the blur.  
  
She stopped in front of the Arcade and the doors slid open, and   
Motoki turned and dropped the glass he had been filling with   
chocolate milkshake. Mamoru, the intended customer, spun around   
and his jaw hit the counter and bounced a little.  
  
"...Usa... Usagi?" His hoarse voice was deafening in the silence.  
  
The ethereal fairy goddess giggled and nodded. "Hai, Mamoru-san.   
Sorry about the wait... I was delayed." As she spoke she lifted her   
spells, so to the people of the Arcade it seemed that two huge,   
pure, softly tinted butterfly wings unfurled from her back to   
dazzle and shimmer as her aura, so powerful it was visible as a   
soft, silvery blue glow around her, began to take attention.  
  
"Usagi?" Motoki mouthed, his voice gone to places unrecoverable.  
  
"Usagi! We've been so worried about you!" Mamoru rushed at her and   
swept her into his arms, holding her close with his strong arms,   
and she shook her head softly and pushed him away.  
  
"I can't do this with you, Mamoru. I'm a monster." She whispered,   
her eyes heavy. "I'm only a monster, Mamoru, something this universe   
has never seen, created for war and meant for peace. I can't tie   
you to me... you don't deserve it."  
  
He shook his head. "You're wrong... I've had a few days to think   
all of it over, and I've--"  
  
He was cut off as Super Sailor Venus rushed through the doors and   
raced at her queen. "You're back!" She approached Usagi, but then,   
unexpectedly, dropped to one knee, her head low. "My Queen." She   
said solemnly.   
  
Motoki fainted.  
  
Usagi smiled and nodded and offered her hand to Venus. "Let's go   
make paradise, Minako."   
  
  
---  
  
  
How's THAT for a cliffhanger?  
  
XDXD  
  
God, you guys must hate me..  
  
No, I'm NOT going to leave the crossover like that.... dun WORRY! I'm  
cruel, but not that cruel... 


	13. Return to Hogwarts

Queen Eternia sat on her throne thoughtfully, her attention only somewhat  
on the diplomat speaking to her about the foreign policies with the   
United States. She already knew the solution to the entire situation,   
but if talking made the pompous man feel better, then all the better,   
because it gave her a moment to think.  
  
"... and the President, uh, had made his, uh, displeasure known at your   
decision, uh, to strip your neighbors of, uh, their armies, but, uh,   
you did it anyway..."   
  
She could sense the diplomat's growing frustration at his lacking speech   
capabilities that evening. Prying into his mind a little, she could see   
he was normally a suave and manipulative speaker, the best of his kind,   
or the worse, depending on how you saw it. Unnerved by her ethereal,   
soft, glowing beauty and the tinted butterfly wings that framed her   
petite, delicate body, he stuttered like a schoolboy as his eyes drifted   
down to her full, heavy breasts every other second.  
  
She smiled a little at his discomfort and let her thoughts drift back to   
Hogwarts. It had been almost five years in her time, two years only in   
that world. The time continuities kept shifting, something she   
attributed to her Magiim friend. If they kept in the pattern they were,   
the world that held the school she had known would be within her reach   
soon.  
  
The Hogwarts of her world had been surprised to see the Queen appear at   
their gates a paltry week after the harsh squares of Tokyo had vanished   
and been replaced by the haunting ivories and crystals of the Moon   
Kingdom, brought to life again by careful magic and hard work. It was a   
shock to the rest of the world, this beautiful woman declaring her   
right to the earth, a gift of love from the heir himself. A besotted   
Prince Endymion had given her the earth soon after her reappearance on   
the planet.  
  
It had gone smoothly, and rather unexpectedly so. Super Sailors Venus,   
Uranus, Jupiter, and Neptune had flanked the Queen, appearing seconds   
after she did, their hands locked in teleport. Breaking apart quickly,   
they took their positions around the regal goddess, Uranus and Neptune   
behind, Venus and Jupiter in front, their eyes narrowing as Dumbledore,   
flanked himself by McGonagall and Snape, advanced toward them.  
  
"Professor Dumbledore, we have much to discuss." Eternia said softly,   
her magick moving to weave little ribbons around him, letting him inhale   
her scent of moonbeams and steel as she smiled at him. "You know who I   
am."  
  
Dumbledore nodded. "Shouldn't you be speaking to our Minister?"  
  
Eternia frowned. "I will have no dealings with fools. Shall we go to my   
office or would you be more comfortable in your own? I have no   
preference, but I do require that two of my senshi accompany me. This is   
Sailor Uranus, Neptune, Jupiter, and Venus. My Planetary Senshi. You've   
seen them in the news."  
  
Dumbledore nodded, and wondered a little nervously to himself how she   
had Apparated straight onto school grounds. "My office would be this   
way, Your Majesty."  
  
She nodded. "Yes, I know." As she passed Severus, his eyes locked onto   
hers and the most peculiar sense of déjà vu took his thoughts as he   
gazed at her, her beguiling eyes flashing something to him that sent a   
jolt down his spine.  
  
He did not miss the scathing, almost jealous glare that Uranus shot at   
him, a look clearing detailing that if he were to touch the Queen, she   
would delight in ripping his intestines out through the hole where his   
genitalia once existed.   
  
'Poor Severus.' A lilt of a voice sounded in his mind. 'Haruka's a   
little possessive. Don't mind her at all.' He turned and gave the Queen   
a suspicious look, but she was conversing seriously with Dumbledore, her   
brow furrowed and nodding.  
  
Severus turned to Neptune, the senshi who looked least likely to remove   
his head on utterance of a whisper. "How old is Her Majesty, exactly?"   
He inquired, as they followed the two into Hogwarts.  
  
Super Sailor Neptune smiled mysteriously. "Her blood is old beyond the   
count of mortal years, but the body she resides in is probably about two   
human years old. Her earth name is about eighteen years old, accounting   
for time spent in other dimensions, and her mind is a couple of   
millennia old."  
  
It took the professor half a second to process all of that to the true   
answer. He spun around to face Neptune, his eyes shocked. "Are you   
telling me that the most powerful monarch in the world is a teenager?!"   
His voice rang off the stone of the corridors. Jupiter spun, emerald   
eyes dangerous.   
  
"We are not teenagers, sir." She seemed nine feet tall and pure muscle   
and power. "I remember almost fifty years of life, and most of that was   
spent in combat or combat training, and what part of my life I haven't   
spent kicking the asses of arrogant bastards, I've spent in class or   
with tutors. We are not incapable of ruling a planet not even a tenth   
of the size of the one I inherited at the age of five!" Her voice was   
tense, her posture hinted she had not slept in a while.   
  
"Jupiter, calm down. He meant no offense, I'm sure." Eternia smiled and   
the world was right again. Jupiter did not relax but resumed her pace.  
  
They came to a stone gargoyle. "I've changed my mind. The four of you   
should wait out here for me... I think that it would be a more   
comfortable conversation if I didn't have two bodyguards breathing down   
the necks of my friends."  
  
Uranus opened her mouth to protest, but smiled mischievously and   
changed her mind. Venus giggled and nodded.   
  
"Feel free to wander the halls, my dears." Dumbledore said with a small   
smile. "Severus may show you around.. Minera, as my deputy headmistress,   
should probably come with me."  
  
Eternia smiled again. "I have no problem with that." She gripped a white   
staff in her hands, and the three magical humans were quite certain it   
had not been there before, but made no comment.   
  
'Go on, then.' She added, to her senshi only. 'I'll be fine, and you   
four need a chance to relax a little. And no attacking anyone! For the   
love of god, Mako-chan, I know it's been a long week for all of us, but   
do watch your temper.'  
  
Jupiter shot an abashed grin at Eternia and nodded.   
  
"And de-henshin, if you so desire. I trust these three, if nothing else."   
  
Uranus blinked, and then nodded. At the same instant, the four of them let   
their transformations lapse in a display of color and magic, one that made   
Severus jump, Minerva gasp, and Dumbledore's eyebrows to rise in surprise.  
  
  
Four teenagers, two not quite sixteen and two not much older than that,   
stared back at them from the places of the four intimidating senshi.   
Uranus, now Ten'oh Haruka, offered her arm to Michiru and winked at   
Severus. If he had not just seen the woman in a revealing warrior uniform,   
he would have questioned the gender of the young woman, dressed in a   
tailored suit and the boyish cut.  
  
Minako laughed. "Let's go, Haruka-san!" She took the girl's free arm and   
dashed off, the two outer senshi in tow. Makoto giggled and ran after   
them, shouting something about getting detention if they kept this up.  
  
Eternia smothered a smile and her wings fluttered a little. "They haven't   
had much opportunity to relax, these past days. This will be good for   
them."  
  
Severus eyed her. "I must say I question the loyalty of soldiers who so   
willingly leave their Queen defenseless." The tone was nasty, the remark   
implicating. And Eternia didn't like it, but she conjured a sweet,   
delicate smile.   
  
"Defenseless I am not. I am the very last of the Lunarians, sir. Your   
Headmaster recognizes the name Etern, I see in his eyes so. I carry half   
his blood in my veins, and the other half is pure Lunarian. Severus Snape,   
I am *never* defenseless." She paused, and then added, "And it certainly   
helps that I'm immortal."  
  
Minerva sputtered, the first time she'd spoken to Eternia the while. "That's impossible."   
  
Dumbledore spoke softly to the gargoyle, hiding his smile.  
  
"It is not." Eternia shot back. "No more impossible than Time Travel. And I came about it honest, and it is true, of the brand that Voldemort will never possess."  
  
The gargoyle opened the door, and Dumbledore motioned that the Queen should go first. He followed her, asking his question quietly. "What do you know of Voldemort, my dear?"  
  
Eternia shook her head. "Only what I have been told, and only what I see. My curse is to know the thoughts of all men, and sometimes, when I am able to make sense of the madness, it is a helpful curse. But the thoughts are mixed with the thoughts of another Voldemort, one I have dealt with in another dimension. This is why I've come to you now-- my power is great, but I am not omnipotent. The time threads move, and they are closing in such a way now that soon I may travel back to that dimension. This one and that are very similar, and you can help me. In return, I will help you. The ally of Etern is not a small one."  
  
They found the door to his office and Dumbledore opened it. "I understand, I think. But what do you want us to do, exactly?"  
  
Minerva made a small, disbelieving noise as she shut the door behind her. "Albus, this is ridiculous. She's just a girl."  
  
Eternia kept her glare to herself and appealed to Dumbledore. "My mother always had good relations with the Founders of this school. She helped them many times and in the end they tried to help her. It is in both of our best interests to renew that friendship. I could rule this planet without the aid of human magic. I could but I have to desire to." She blinked. "Hell. Maybe this'll help."  
  
There was a flash of light and a small, petite blonde girl, maybe all of sixteen, smiled at them.   
  
Even Dumbledore looked taken aback.  
  
She nodded. "I am a weapon, sir. I ask only for someone to accompany me to that dimension who is more experienced in magic and the dealings of the magic world than I am. That's all. In return, I'll give you the assistance of the Sailor Senshi in your war against Voldemort."  
  
Minerva, still startled by the sudden transformation and even more so by the absolute harmlessness of the girl, who radiated nothing of the steel and determination of the Queen, nodded. "I think it's a reasonable deal, Albus." She said, her voice shaken.  
  
Usagi smiled at her and looked towards Dumbledore. "I request Severus Snape, if at all possible."  
  
Dumbledore's eyebrows rose; he had not missed the exchange between his Potions Master and her senshi. "I don't know if that will be possible, my dear. It is in the middle of the school year and you don't know the exact length of time you will be gone--"  
  
She nodded blankly. "You have another in mind-- a creature-- Remus Lupin. A werewolf." She made a pleased sound in her throat. "Oh, werewolves are so attached to the moon. Perhaps he would be a better choice. And... yes. Yes, Mr. Lupin will do most perfectly. He's in the school now, is he not? In a hidden tower?"  
  
Minerva's eyes narrowed. "You're a telepath."  
  
Usagi nodded. "Yes. Uncontrollably so." She smiled again at Dumbledore, who was taking in this new turn silently. "May I go to meet this wolf of yours? He sounds delightful."  
  
--------  
  
  
Sailor Venus was roaming the halls when she heard the familiar, almost silent footsteps of the Queen, footsteps a normal ear could not hear. She was accompanied by two people, the headmaster and the other woman, Venus knew. She ducked around the corner and listened.  
  
One of the last senshi to find the princess, Minako Aino was also one of the only senshi to note that her Usagi had been so very different since her return. They'd took her for dead, and Mamoru had mourned. But she had returned, and Minako knew that she had left her heart elsewhere. The slight rise in Serenity's energy when she'd stepped into Hogwarts made Venus suspicious, and Minako saw that Serenity's attention was on the tall Potions Master, even if he paid her little in return.  
  
And her determination to return the to the dimension she had left...   
  
Venus shook her head to clear her thoughts and looked around the corner as Dumbledore knocked on a door. Venus heard a rustling on the other side and then it opened. From her vantage point, she had a very good view of the man who answered, and her heart skipped a beat. God, and she'd thought Kunzite was dead sexy. But the rush of sheer energy that he gave off upon taking in his visitors nearly knocked her to his knees.   
  
'A werewolf, Minako-chan. We're connected at heart. You might want to put up shields, darling.'  
  
Venus growled and stomped out of her hiding place, muttering words that put up the magical barriers around her. "Thanks for the late warning, Your Odango Atamaness!"  
  
A peal of beautiful laughter came from Eternia's lips, and her wings moved softly. "Poor Venus, you shouldn't eavesdrop. This is Remus Lupin... I was about to ask that he accompany us when we go."  
  
Venus rolled her eyes and used the opportunity to give him a closer once over and smiled a little at the bewildered man. "Sooo... how are *you*, sexy?" She purred.  
  
Eternia laughed again. "I'll tell Kunzite on you, Minako!"  
  
Venus grinned cheekily. "Tell him anything you want! I'll just deny it."  
  
"Headmaster? What's going on?" Remus asked weakly, forcing Dumbledore to smile.   
  
"Remus, this is Queen Eternia, of Crystal Tokyo, and her senshi, Super Sailor Venus. The Queen has come to us searching for someone to accompany her into another dimension like our own, and I suggested you." 


	14. Epilogue

Purging The World In The Blood of an Angel  
  
Black Beyond  
  
  
  
Epilogue  
  
Severus Snape was alone in his chambers, a shot glass in one hand and a bottle in the other. He was so lost in himself he did not hear the first soft knock at his door. He heard the second and ignored it. The third shook him to his senses and he growled.  
  
It had been a year since she left him without warning. The twins were gone from his days but that insufferable Potter and his two tagalongs were still here.   
  
Since she had left, he had only became worse. He had not stepped out of the castle since that battle; he could not or Voldemort would be on him in an instant. He was a useless prisoner, and his temper had not improved.  
  
He walked to the door on unsure feet and threw the door open.  
  
He had to be so drunk. He threw an uneasy glance back at the bottle he had abandoned... what was in magical alcohol, anyway?... and then he looked back at what stood before him.  
  
His silver angel, her wings and symbol hidden, dressed in a simple black robe. His silver angel... the one he had so foolishly fallen in love with, in that indescribable moment in her arms...  
  
"Usagi?" He asked stupidly.  
  
she smiled up at him, her gray eyes quiet and demure. "I came back to say hello for a few days, Severus. Dumbledore doesn't know I'm here yet..." She took a step towards him and was embraced by the darkness of the room, sandalwood washing over her in a combination of sensual herbs and scents.   
  
He just stood there, before taking two steps backward, and almost falling. She closed and locked the door behind her, and turned to smile at him again. "Want to talk before I see the Headmaster?" She asked.  
  
"...talk..." He repeated, at a loss in his drunken state. She grinned and waved a hand towards him, and his sober mind washed over him quickly.  
  
It took only a second for him to realize what was going on. His brain computed her request to talk and he scorned it. Before he could think about what he was doing, he took a gliding step and encircled her in his arms, his lips seeking out her own. He kissed her chastely, his body screaming to be close to her. He couldn't let go of her now, not ever, he had missed her too much.  
  
She closed her eyes and kissed him back, while something in her own mind whispered that she was a monster and shouldn't be doing this. His hands came up to bury themselves in her long, luxurious hair, like liquid satin under his calloused fingers.   
  
Before, her embrace had been a sexless ecstasy that he could not have voluntarily stepped away from if his life had depended on it.   
  
This embrace was so very different. Sensuality hung from her every limb like ripe fruit on a tree, inviting him, luring him closer to her. The alcohol was gone from his mind but that didn't stop him from not doing as logic demanded, offer her a seat and talk for a while like civilized people.  
  
He had never thought much of civilization anyway.  
  
He pulled away from her and ran his fingers down her cheek and cupped her chin softly, lifting her face up to look at him. Her eyes were heavy and a little confused, and guilty.  
  
She moved away and laid her head on his chest, hugging him close to her. "Severus, why have you been drinking?" She asked.  
  
"To make me forget you." He held her tightly to him.  
  
"Well, You don't have to do that anymore."  
  
----  
  
Alright, folks.  
  
I've been thinking about this for weeks. With much regret and indecision, I am finishing the story here. I have completely lost interest in the story, and I am out of ideas. I would like leave to focus on my other fanfiction, and I feel this is as good a place as any to leave this story.   
  
If anyone wishes to make a fic from this universe, using these characters, you are more than welcome to, I only ask you give credit where credit is due.   
  
I am sorry for any upset... I realize this has been one of my more popular fics. It has just been a very long time since I wrote on this story and I am regrettably not the same person I was then.   
  
I will continue to work on my other fanfics... Perhaps my other fics will keep you entertained.  
  
And for those of you who asked me not to have a Usa/Severus romance...  
  
NYAAAAH!  
  
:  
  
Adios! 


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